Movies like Child Violinist (1980)
The best movies like Child Violinist (1980) are Yellow Earth (1984), The Good Earth (1937) and Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998). If Child Violinist hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTo Live (1994)8.3/10 from 439 votes
- NewestSight (2023)Released 2023
- In ChineseYellow Earth (1984)Also in Chinese
Yellow Earth (1984)
A communist soldier is sent to a remote region of China in order to collect folk songs. Staying with a peasant family (a widower with two small children), he discovers a community whose way of life is completely alien to him, but he gradually wins their trust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Good Earth (1937)
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSight (2023)
Ming Wang is an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. When tasked with restoring the sight of an orphan in India, who was blinded by her stepmother, Wang must confront the trauma of living through the violent uprising in his youth, the Cultural Revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHibiscus Town (1987)
Based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTo Live (1994)
Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTogether (2002)
When a violin prodigy Xiaochun and his father head to Beijing seeking fame and fortune, they soon discover a fierce world of cutthroat ambition. But when Xiaochun is "adopted" by a famous music tutor, success finally seems within reach - until a shocking discovery begins to unravel his entire world, and the boy must make the most difficult choice of his life. Can he achieve the fame his father had always hoped for without losing the extraordinary passion that sets him apart?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Emperor (1987)
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSummer Palace (2007)
Yu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSecret (2007)
Ye Xiang Lun, a talented piano player is a new student at the prestigious Tamkang School. On his first day, he meets Lu Xiao Yu, a pretty girl playing a mysterious piece of music.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaipei Story (1985)
A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Joy Luck Club (1993)
Through a series of flashbacks, four Chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China explore their pasts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Honorary Consul (1983)
Set in a small politically unstable Latin American country, the story follows the half English and half Latino Dr. Eduardo Plarr, who left his home to find a better life. Along the way he meets an array of people, including British Consul Charley Fortnum, a representative in Latin America who is trying to keep Revolution from occurring. He is also a remorseful alcoholic. Another person the doctor meets is Clara, whom he immediately falls in love with, but there is a problem: Clara is Charley's wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisM. Butterfly (1993)
In 1960s China, French diplomat Rene Gallimard falls in love with opera singer Song Liling – but Song is not at all who Gallimard thinks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJu Dou (1990)
Tianqing falls in love with Ju Dou, his uncle's wife who is tortured for being childless. However, after they have an affair, they discover that his uncle is impotent and try to conceal the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCurse of the Golden Flower (2006)
During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Beautician and the Beast (1997)
A New York City beautician is mistakenly hired as the school teacher for the children of the president of a small Eastern European country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBalzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002)
During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor's beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
Due to a genetic disorder, handsome librarian Henry DeTamble involuntarily zips through time, appearing at various moments in the life of his true love, the beautiful artist Clare Abshire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeception (1946)
After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Child Violinist and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Child Violinist?
The closest matches to Child Violinist are Yellow Earth (1984), The Good Earth (1937) and Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Child Violinist?
Start with Yellow Earth (1984), the closest match to Child Violinist.
What is the highest-rated movie like Child Violinist?
To Live (1994), rated 8.3/10 by 439 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Child Violinist?
Sight (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Child Violinist?
Yes: Yellow Earth (1984), Hibiscus Town (1987) and To Live (1994).
How are movies similar to Child Violinist chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Child Violinist, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.