{"id":5117,"date":"2026-10-09T09:58:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/?p=5117"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:01:18","slug":"a-historical-movie-makes-history-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/a-historical-movie-makes-history-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Historical Movie Makes History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lifelong arts advocate Nyonya Juliana Lim is thoroughly enamoured by Annecy Cristal award-winning animated feature film, The Violinist. Please be warned\u00a0\u2013 this review contains potential spoilers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The NUS Baba House was used as a reference for the interiors of Fei’s childhood home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Potential spoiler alert!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll say it upfront: The Violinist is a MUST-WATCH!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, it was a thrill to see Singapore depicted so realistically, from the Esplanade Concert Hall complete with pipe organ and reverberation chamber doors to the Victoria Concert Hall with its clock tower and our colonial buildings, Chinatown and Fujian-style shophouses. Drawn with great precision and attention to the smallest details, these places are not only recognisable, but evoked memories from real-life experiences, from something as mundane as racing up the narrow carpark ramp of the Esplanade to encountering the wondrous view of Marina Bay surrounded by MBS, the Singapore Flyer and the two bubble-like conservatories of the Gardens by the Bay, to sitting in the concert hall anticipating the great music to come, and the experience of speaking into the microphone of a security system urgently, desperate to gain access. Nor did the production team flinch from illustrating the darker scenes of WW2, including torture and the Sook Ching massacre, but these were done masterfully so that one only needed to hear the screams to feel the pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, Singapore\u2019s history is succinctly told through the recollections of the violinist Lee Fei. Part one of the story starts happily. Growing up in a three-storey shophouse in central Singapore that was modelled on the NUS Baba House at 157 Neil Road, she pauses during violin practice to witness her maid\u2019s son Kai protect a younger boy against bullies in the back lane, only to be mercilessly assaulted by them. This is the first fortuitous turn in Kai\u2019s life. Grounded, he\u2019s tasked to clean the house and hears the regular strains of the violin and piano. Fei is practising for a concert at the Governor\u2019s home. He can\u2019t resist peeping at her, his feather-duster swaying rhythmically to the music as if he was conducting.  She\u2019s so irritated she tries to chase him out at which point the second fortuitous turn occurs. He blurts out that her violin has been out of tune for several days. She\u2019s irate but her Japanese music teacher lights up to Kai\u2019s unexpected musicality. With only a few secret lessons from her, Kai rises to the occasion to accompany Fei at the Governor\u2019s concert. From that instant, they become music buddies and eventually, sweethearts. These are the best of times for Kai and Fei! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A rooftop scene depicts Kai against a backdrop of 1930s Singapore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Kai and Fei part at the onset of WW2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All\u2019s well for Kai and Fei until December 1942 when the bombs dropped on Singapore. He gives up a scholarship to study music in the UK to join war hero Lim Bo Seng in his WW2 resistance movement. Kai was also in the midst of composing the \u201cSunset Sonata\u201d, which he aspired to jointly debut with Fei. He\u2019s determined to complete it, sending new pages to Fei through his resistance allies. Eventually they lose contact, Lim Bo Seng is caught, tortured and executed. The Sonata is unfinished. Part two of the story reveals Singapore\u2019s darkest hours during WE2 but the best of humanity, celebrating our people\u2019s courage and patriotic spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in Part Two that I experience the most wonderful moment in the film. I term it the \u201cShawshank Redemption\u201d moment: the lonesome Fei, broken-hearted from her seemingly endless separation from Kai, plays the violin into the night, touching the hearts and souls of a street full of victims  – an opium addict, hungry children who have lost their parents, distraught mothers who have lost their children \u2013 lifting their spirits, all are finally able to fall asleep to the comforting strains of her music. Whoever thought or said that \u201cart was inessential\u201d must surely be swayed by this scene! For me, tears flowed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part three transits to modern, post-war Singapore. The years have not diminished Fei\u2019s heartache and yearning for her sweetheart. She has resolved and risen to become one of the world\u2019s best violinists in the hope of reaching Kai. She attempts to complete his sonata as best she can. Fei plays to lift her own spirits and ease her decades of pain. Will she ever be reunited with Kai? I\u2019ll only disclose that the ending is truly bittersweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a longtime arts advocate, I love the film\u2019s overarching message that \u201cstories and music are all we have!\u201d These words, spoken by the character of Mr. Fernandez, a Spanish journalist, successfully teased the love story out of an aged Fei. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewed through the lens of being a Peranakan Museum docent, this story is about a Westernised Straits Chinese family, influential enough to have connections with the Governor, who we never see, as the presence of Singapore\u2019s British administrators was downplayed. From a historical perspective, the film also rebalances our view of the Japanese. There were Japanese living here before WW2, like the cultured music teacher. Then, there\u2019s the Japanese soldier who protected Fei even as he missed his musician wife and daughter. They are human, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bravo to all of the cast and production team. And to Ervin: I don\u2019t know you, but you are my new hero and arts champion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

About the Author<\/strong>
Juliana Lim spent 18 years in the arts management sector and now volunteers as a docent with The Peranakan Museum.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lifelong arts advocate Nyonya Juliana Lim is thoroughly enamoured by Annecy Cristal award-winning animated feature film, The Violinist. Please be warned\u00a0\u2013 this review contains potential spoilers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5117"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5137,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions\/5137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peranakan.org.sg\/theperanakanmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}