What to know
- The Violinist is an animated feature by Singaporean director Ervin Han and Spanish director Raúl García that is currently premiering at TIFF 2026.
- The film highlights two violinists, Fei and Kai, as they try to survive through the Japanese occupation of Singapore during WWII the early-1940s.
- Their shared love of music and playing the violin are what keeps them holding on until the war ends.
- The Violinist takes viewers on an emotional ride that navigates loss, bravery, resilience, and the invisible musical string that ties two people together over a lifetime.
When war destroys the entire fabric of society, memories of the hope once held are our only solace.
This review contains spoilers for the film The Violinist.
At TIFF 2026, Singaporean director Ervin Han and Spanish director Raúl García debut The Violinist, a poignant look at two gifted violinists, whose lives are torn apart by the Japanese occupation of Singapore.
The animated feature — reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s art style — takes viewers on an emotional ride that navigates loss, bravery, resilience, and the invisible musical string that ties two people together over a lifetime. Viewers are advised to bring tissues.
Fei Lee is a world renowned violinist whose career has taken her to concert halls around the world. After a concert, her peaceful night is interrupted by music journalist Hugo Fernandez, who followed her car home on his vespa (journalists, please don’t follow people home. That’s stalking). He’s been trying to interview Fei for years, but keeps missing her.
After showing her a yellowed photo of her standing next to a childhood friend, she invites him in. Fernandez only has one question: Why have you been playing the same violin for over 60 years?
We flash back to 1932 in British Malaya. Fei is a gifted young violinist from an affluent family. Her family’s servant, Ying Jie, takes in a neighbourhood orphan, Kai, who also starts playing the violin after Fei’s family learns he has perfect pitch. The two become inseparable as friends, violinists, and eventually lovers.
Fei and Kai’s shared passion for playing music is what keeps them somewhat sane during the height of World War II.
At the end of 1941, Japanese troops invade Singapore, conducting air raids that decimate entire towns and rip Fei and Kai’s family apart. Fei stays in Japanese-occupied Singapore, safekeeping Kai’s violin and doing what she can to stay in Japanese soldiers’ good graces while Kai becomes a spy for the allied troops.
Despite being an animated movie, The Violinist doesn’t sugarcoat the atrocities Japan committed in its quest for world dominance. Men were executed or sent to concentration camps; women were in constant danger of becoming soldiers’ “playthings”; children were orphaned. Japan may have lost the war, but no one won. The lasting impact suffered by Singaporeans and other Asian countries is still felt in the present day.
Even the Japanese soldier viewers are led to feel an ounce of pity for — the one who just wants the war to end — is quick to temper when his motives are questioned.
But when nothing else survives a war, music does. The memories of once playing violin together and the hope of playing violin together again are enough to keep both Fei and Kai going until WWII ends. Throughout the decades, every note Fei plays on Kai’s violin is a small symbol of her hope, her stubbornness and her longing.
With music being integral to the storytelling in The Violinist, it’s no surprise the score is beautifully composed and is a master at bringing viewers face-first into a scene. You feel the hope, the yearning, the devastation, and the eventual relief. It’s the glue that holds the movie together.
This film brings to the forefront an uncomfortable truth that rarely graces our history books. However, Fei’s and Kai’s shared passion for music adds a much needed thread of humanity and hope in an otherwise hard watch. Although, the writers may have glossed over the realities of learning an instrument.
The Violinist will have one more screening at TIFF 2026 on Sunday, Sept. 20 at Scotiabank Theatre at 4:25 p.m.
