This was such an emotional, disturbing, sympathetic, powerful, and sad music video for this beautiful song.
It seems like there was an implication of molestation between the man (a father) and the girl (a daughter). There's only so much damage the man can do before the girl becomes angry and begins to fight him, and eventually leaves "the cage" (the situation/problem or home). The man can leave the cage if he takes a route only he can take, and not the girl. I think that in terms of a father/daughter relationship that would be the father simply leaving the girl alone in the cage, in the wake of what had happened to put her in the cage. So he goes back for her. He wants to comfort her and reassure her he is not leaving her, but she misinterprets the touch and they begin to fight and move around the cage again. The girl is smaller and is able to leave the cage, for one because she is a child and is able to glide in and out of the problem which cages the man permanently, and only restrains her when she fights the man and/or is drawn back into the problem. The girl sees the man is trapped in the cage and feels sorry for him, and so she goes back into the cage. Then we see the man is acting like a father should. We don't exactly see the man as a paternal figure until he begins to make the girl laugh, and she begins to give him purpose and he begins to give her happiness. When the girl sees this paternal happiness/goofiness in him, she tries to lead him out of the cage. I'm guessing the cage, in this way, is supposed to represent the relationship between the two that the act of molestation created. At the beginning of the video, it's just a man and a girl fighting with no connection, in a cage, their relationship is based on physicality. The girl is just a girl and the man is just a man and that's how they see each other. And by the end we see that the girl (daughter) wants the man (father) to be happy and free from guilt over his heinous act, because if she can forget it and it's implications, then she wants him to do the same. But he can't, and he tries to pull her back into the cage, and the struggle is still ongoing.
This is just the way I see it, and I could be dead wrong. Feel free to add to it, or tell me what you think the song/music video is about and implies, but please don't hate because this is just mt interpretation of it. Thanks.
@SamH270 This was my interpretation of the music video, not the song, and I wrote down my interpretation of the music video before hearing various other theories in regards to the meaning (Sia's warring states, mental illness, Sia's relationship w/ her father, etc.) and I believe the song or music video can inspire any emotion or view and none of them are wrong because art is all left up interpretation. Thanks. :)
@SamH270 This was my interpretation of the music video, not the song, and I wrote down my interpretation of the music video before hearing various other theories in regards to the meaning (Sia's warring states, mental illness, Sia's relationship w/ her father, etc.) and I believe the song or music video can inspire any emotion or view and none of them are wrong because art is all left up interpretation. Thanks. :)
@SamH270 I had a similar thought but slightly different. In an article where she apologizes for those that were offended by her video, Sia "All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play these two warring ‘sia’ self states". Furthermore, the original plan for the video was to have just Shia (they even joked about having him wear the blonde bob and a leotard).
@SamH270 I had a similar thought but slightly different. In an article where she apologizes for those that were offended by her video, Sia "All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play these two warring ‘sia’ self states". Furthermore, the original plan for the video was to have just Shia (they even joked about having him wear the blonde bob and a leotard).
I think Maddie is her as a child and Shia is her as an adult. Child-Sia is no longer happy with herself as she...
I think Maddie is her as a child and Shia is her as an adult. Child-Sia is no longer happy with herself as she becomes an adult. Adult-Sia keeps trying to give reason to why she made her choices, some of them upset Child-Sia, but ultimately she forgives her. She tries to pull her out (you'll notice that, even at the very end, Maddie is still grasping Shia - she's not trying to escape, she's pulling as hard as she can to free him) but Adult-Sia is responsible for her action's and can't leave them behind, so she is trapped.
@SamH270 I definitely got a dysfunctional father/daughter relationship from the video (no matter what the official interpretation is) but I can't see any implication of molestation in it no matter how hard I try... the man looks depressed and pitiful and does not react in a violent or controlling manner even as his out-of-control daughter thrashes and chases him around the cage. He continually tries to reach out to her in a gentle way even though he is clearly scared of her. All of his poses are so submissive, and even when he looks like he's going to take an...
@SamH270 I definitely got a dysfunctional father/daughter relationship from the video (no matter what the official interpretation is) but I can't see any implication of molestation in it no matter how hard I try... the man looks depressed and pitiful and does not react in a violent or controlling manner even as his out-of-control daughter thrashes and chases him around the cage. He continually tries to reach out to her in a gentle way even though he is clearly scared of her. All of his poses are so submissive, and even when he looks like he's going to take an aggressive action it turns out that he is just trying to bond with her.
The video represents, to me, a father and daughter torn apart by a nasty divorce. She hates him for leaving her, for breaking apart the family, for no longer caring about her and being there for her. And all he wants is to have his little girl back, even though she acts like she doesn't want him in her life anymore. Their dance is the messy process of repairing their relationship. At the end she begins to forgive him, but when she leaves the cage to go back to her mother's custody she realises her father can't go back with her. She doesn't understand why, so she keeps trying to pull him across the bars while he sinks to the ground in despair. He's going to lose his daughter all over again.
This was such an emotional, disturbing, sympathetic, powerful, and sad music video for this beautiful song. It seems like there was an implication of molestation between the man (a father) and the girl (a daughter). There's only so much damage the man can do before the girl becomes angry and begins to fight him, and eventually leaves "the cage" (the situation/problem or home). The man can leave the cage if he takes a route only he can take, and not the girl. I think that in terms of a father/daughter relationship that would be the father simply leaving the girl alone in the cage, in the wake of what had happened to put her in the cage. So he goes back for her. He wants to comfort her and reassure her he is not leaving her, but she misinterprets the touch and they begin to fight and move around the cage again. The girl is smaller and is able to leave the cage, for one because she is a child and is able to glide in and out of the problem which cages the man permanently, and only restrains her when she fights the man and/or is drawn back into the problem. The girl sees the man is trapped in the cage and feels sorry for him, and so she goes back into the cage. Then we see the man is acting like a father should. We don't exactly see the man as a paternal figure until he begins to make the girl laugh, and she begins to give him purpose and he begins to give her happiness. When the girl sees this paternal happiness/goofiness in him, she tries to lead him out of the cage. I'm guessing the cage, in this way, is supposed to represent the relationship between the two that the act of molestation created. At the beginning of the video, it's just a man and a girl fighting with no connection, in a cage, their relationship is based on physicality. The girl is just a girl and the man is just a man and that's how they see each other. And by the end we see that the girl (daughter) wants the man (father) to be happy and free from guilt over his heinous act, because if she can forget it and it's implications, then she wants him to do the same. But he can't, and he tries to pull her back into the cage, and the struggle is still ongoing. This is just the way I see it, and I could be dead wrong. Feel free to add to it, or tell me what you think the song/music video is about and implies, but please don't hate because this is just mt interpretation of it. Thanks.
@SamH270 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWZGAExj-es
@SamH270 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWZGAExj-es
that is beautiful.
that is beautiful.
@SamH270 This was my interpretation of the music video, not the song, and I wrote down my interpretation of the music video before hearing various other theories in regards to the meaning (Sia's warring states, mental illness, Sia's relationship w/ her father, etc.) and I believe the song or music video can inspire any emotion or view and none of them are wrong because art is all left up interpretation. Thanks. :)
@SamH270 This was my interpretation of the music video, not the song, and I wrote down my interpretation of the music video before hearing various other theories in regards to the meaning (Sia's warring states, mental illness, Sia's relationship w/ her father, etc.) and I believe the song or music video can inspire any emotion or view and none of them are wrong because art is all left up interpretation. Thanks. :)
@SamH270 I had a similar thought but slightly different. In an article where she apologizes for those that were offended by her video, Sia "All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play these two warring ‘sia’ self states". Furthermore, the original plan for the video was to have just Shia (they even joked about having him wear the blonde bob and a leotard).
@SamH270 I had a similar thought but slightly different. In an article where she apologizes for those that were offended by her video, Sia "All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play these two warring ‘sia’ self states". Furthermore, the original plan for the video was to have just Shia (they even joked about having him wear the blonde bob and a leotard).
I think Maddie is her as a child and Shia is her as an adult. Child-Sia is no longer happy with herself as she...
I think Maddie is her as a child and Shia is her as an adult. Child-Sia is no longer happy with herself as she becomes an adult. Adult-Sia keeps trying to give reason to why she made her choices, some of them upset Child-Sia, but ultimately she forgives her. She tries to pull her out (you'll notice that, even at the very end, Maddie is still grasping Shia - she's not trying to escape, she's pulling as hard as she can to free him) but Adult-Sia is responsible for her action's and can't leave them behind, so she is trapped.
@SamH270 I definitely got a dysfunctional father/daughter relationship from the video (no matter what the official interpretation is) but I can't see any implication of molestation in it no matter how hard I try... the man looks depressed and pitiful and does not react in a violent or controlling manner even as his out-of-control daughter thrashes and chases him around the cage. He continually tries to reach out to her in a gentle way even though he is clearly scared of her. All of his poses are so submissive, and even when he looks like he's going to take an...
@SamH270 I definitely got a dysfunctional father/daughter relationship from the video (no matter what the official interpretation is) but I can't see any implication of molestation in it no matter how hard I try... the man looks depressed and pitiful and does not react in a violent or controlling manner even as his out-of-control daughter thrashes and chases him around the cage. He continually tries to reach out to her in a gentle way even though he is clearly scared of her. All of his poses are so submissive, and even when he looks like he's going to take an aggressive action it turns out that he is just trying to bond with her.
The video represents, to me, a father and daughter torn apart by a nasty divorce. She hates him for leaving her, for breaking apart the family, for no longer caring about her and being there for her. And all he wants is to have his little girl back, even though she acts like she doesn't want him in her life anymore. Their dance is the messy process of repairing their relationship. At the end she begins to forgive him, but when she leaves the cage to go back to her mother's custody she realises her father can't go back with her. She doesn't understand why, so she keeps trying to pull him across the bars while he sinks to the ground in despair. He's going to lose his daughter all over again.