I Saw Right Through You

As a lover of the classic martial arts genre films it was my token of appreciation to create I Saw Right Through You as design paying homage to not only the films but the most famous martyr Bruce Lee and his fury. This design was painted on a blank skateboard for the Deli / Manic “Blank Canvas” show and is also in a digital / graphic form for printing stickers, posters, etc.

My favorite scene from the film is when Bruce is surrounded by a dozen punks giving him reason to pull out the best of tools for death, aside from the modern day version chainsaw, and ferociously puts a jagged saw through the head of one of the attackers! The image for the design is based on that particular scene with a few additional elements to bring it together compositionally. Bruce dawns a bandana around the mouth giving him a little more street finesse. I decided that since the film was relating to the the juxtaposition of Chinese and Japanese martial artists it was necessary to add the Japanese Characters which mean “Big Boss” or “Boss”.

The actual deck was painted with acrylics and some use of inks. There are some iridescent layers that really shimmer and change in the light that aren’t recognizable through this post. To emphasize the power of the saw blade and Bruce’s vengeance a nice lil word bubble with ” ! ” does the composition full justice. Some drippy sun bursts at the flanks of the board really tie in the Asian connection on the design. You won’t find me doing a ton of black and white paintings so this is truly a one of a kind deck and design from the Beery Method Studio.

A little about the film and it’s appeal to me:

The film that was originally slated to release titled Fists of Fury in the States had its new title switched with that of THE BIG BOSS, which was retitled The Chinese Connection to riff off of the then-current The French Connection and its heroin-related content. Seeing this film as The Chinese Connection lead to a bit of confusion as this film has nothing whatsoever to do with drug smuggling. Instead The Chinese Connection which I prefer to call The Big Boss is an archetypal “You killed my master!” revenge flick that has Bruce Lee as the top student at a kung fu school in Japanese-occupied China whose master is poisoned by the dastardly Samurai assholes at a local karate/swordsmanship/Japanese dojo. Bruce and his schoolmates endure all kinds of shit from the intolerably obnoxious Japanese because their teacher did not believe in vengeance. Since this is a Bruce Lee movie it’s only a matter of time until Bruce puts his slipper-clad foot right up the collective ass of every punk ass in the dojo, all while firmly standing up for Chinese pride in the face of imperialist racism and all-around douchebaggery.

I love the intensity and violence in the film that doesn’t come through so hard-core in latter Lee movies. Complete with some of Bruce’s, and martial arts cinema’s, most spectacular fights and the mother of all downbeat endings, this is simply the best film Bruce Lee ever made.

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