Sexy, Cheesecake-Kung-Fu Suit-Up!!!

The introduction sequence to sexy super-thief, Christie Allen, in the motion picture D.O.A (Dead or Alive) contains a stimulating, id spinning, suit up. I have been audience to numerous styles and genres of films spanning from the early 1880's (when cinema hypothetically began) to the present date (9/28/08) and this one taps into the very core element of what makes a suit up scene.

The scene begins in the ultra posh, Hong Kong hotel suite of the English accented cat burglar...as she showers...

This distills, in the most primal essence, the need for a character to seek resources to suit up. Nakedness.

Wearing only a damp towel, she exits the bathroom to find her bedroom has been raided by Hong Kong's finest, headed by the Chief Detective himself. The machine gun armed officers tear through her closet, suitcase, and clothes searching for stolen diamonds and cash they suspect her of having boosted from the hotel's safe after receiving a tip. This imagery evokes the notion that something can be 'hid' behind clothes -- the closet searching, the suit case tossing (the word itself 'suitcase') or that one is at a disadvantage if caught 'un-suited' for a situation. These are common images in the human collective subconscious during dreams: going to school naked = fear or need to 'hide', desire or wet dreams = the want to see the naked human form.

Christie offers to get dressed. Slowly slipping on a pair of black panties, she catches the warm, moist towel as it nearly slips off her breasts letting a cheesecake 'ooo' escape from her lips; the delicate interplay of trying to dress and inadvertently becoming undressed tickles the subconscious with ideas of sexual desire and empowerment: she is in control of the situation. The men are held captive by her seduction. She politely asks if the Chief Detective will hand her her bra; reinforcing her control by ordering the lead authority figure to do as she commands, diminishing him in the power struggle while including him more intimately in the suiting up.

Thus far we have seen most aspects of the human id exhibited in the scene: fear, lust, and power. As the Chief Detective, hands over her bra (draped over his gun -- a gun being a phallic symbol) violence ensues. She kicks the gun and bra free from his hands. Violence completes the id cycle, the climax, la petite mort.

As she fights off all three men, stripping out of her towel to use as a weapon, she is also in the process of suiting up: the bra she kicked out of the Detective's hand is now falling towards her, lifting her arms she lets it fall into place and catches the hand gun. She then forces the Detective to fasten her bra strap at gun point.

Fleeing into the lobby in her bra and panties, she ducks into an elevator, hastily pulling on her shoes. An old gentleman riding along with her tips his hat in acknowledgment. She sizes him up.

She exits the elevator wearing his hat and trench coat; continuing to suit up as a means to escape. A bellboy finds the old man stuffed in his suitcase; stripped of his clothes he is now tucked away in a place where clothes are stored. Bringing the suitcase imagery full circle; the suitcase also being a feminine personification.

As one can see from this example, the underlying subconscious implications of a suit-up scene are what make them satisfying to an audience. Using this paradigm we can now better understand other suit-up scenes: suiting up for fear, for sexual fulfillment, for power, for violence.