MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton

I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.

This article, the eighth of 2025, covers another five scores released this year from a wide array of genres and countries, including a Korean romantic fantasy TV series about a time-travelling chef, the latest season of a long-running British period TV series about midwives serving London’s working poor, a Norwegian Christmas action-comedy caper about a family of mischievous mice, the third film in a series of films from Finland about a young girl who can transform into a flying guinea pig super hero, and a Chinese period TV drama series about the marriage between a son and a daughter from rival clans.

BON APPÉTIT YOUR MAJESTY – Chang-Yeop Jeon

Bon Appétit Your Majesty is a Korean romantic fantasy television series which aired for 12 episodes beginning in August 2025. Directed by Tae-Yoo Jang, it stars Yoon-Ah Im as Ji-Yeong, a modern-day Michelin star chef who is magically transported back in time to the Joseon dynasty during a solar eclipse. She arrives in the royal court of Yi-Heon (played by Chae-Min Lee), a young king burdened by trauma from his mother’s death and consumed by revenge against corrupt officials. Mistaken for a suspicious outsider, Ji-Yeong is eventually appointed as a palace chef after impressing Yi Heon with her innovative cooking. Over time the chef and the king begin to fall in love – drawing the ire of the king’s concubine, who soon becomes her rival for Yi Heon’s affections – and before long Ji-Yeong must decide whether to stay with the king, or try to find her way back to the present.

The score for Bon Appétit Your Majesty is by Korean composer Chang-Yeop Jeon (plus a multitude of additional composers), and this is the first music of his that I have heard, but based on this evidence he is excellent, and I will be looking for more of his work going forwards. The album release of the score is massive – over three hours in length – so I’m not going to go into great detail about the thematic interplay, or talk about each cue at length, suffice to say that it’s a big, romantic, sometimes heartfelt, sometimes quirky and playful, orchestral score that blends a western symphony with a number of traditional period Korean instruments, some vocals, and some more modern electronic textures to create a wonderful extended listening experience.

Romantic cues I especially enjoy include “Chef of Cannon,” “Scent of Memory,” “Missing You,” and “Taste of the Heart.” Playful and quirky cues I especially enjoy include the opening title “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” “Secret Recipe,” “Follow Me,” and especially the fairytale sound of “Weird Kitchen.”

Other cues of note include the imposing “Tyrant’s Aria” which features vocals by Yang Eunsun, dramatic cues “Dignity of a Monarch,” “Lonely King,” and “He Is King” which deal with Yi-Heon’s personal and political battles, the surprisingly Gaelic-inflected light rock of “Palace Story,” the intense “Moment of Crisis,” the throbbing action of “Chase,” and several more upbeat and contemporary-sounding cues like “Fantastic Recipe” and “The Final Plate,” several of which appear to relate the actual act of cooking.

This is excellent stuff all round, and yet another example of the depth and quality of contemporary Korean film and television music . The score for Bon Appétit Your Majesty is available as an import CD from retailers like YesAsia, and is also available to stream and download from most of the usual online sources.

Track Listing: 1. Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (Opening Title) (4:01), 2. Chef of Cannon (feat. Jung Hyesim) (4:49), 3. Tyrant’s Aria (feat. Yang Eunsun) (3:33), 4. Dignity of a Monarch (4:26), 5. Scent of Memory (4:16), 6. Whispers from the Kitchen (2:58), 7. Fantastic Recipe (3:42), 8. Secret Recipe (2:55), 9. Save My Life Please (2:52), 10. The Final Plate (2:58), 11. Palace Story (3:33), 12. Follow Me (3:36), 13. Food Fight (2:35), 14. Chef Comic (2:29), 15. Weird Kitchen (3:12), 16. The Magical Kitchen (3:04), 17. Into Memory (2:14), 18. Sly Comic (2:11), 19. Suspicious Soo Rack Gan (2:21), 20. My Bag (3:03), 21. Moment of Crisis (3:50), 22. Jae San Dae Gun (3:07), 23. Queen (3:13), 24. Lonely King (4:01), 25. He Is King (2:29), 26. Angry Tyrant (3:27), 27. Machinations (2:58), 28. Kang Mok Joo Trap (4:12), 29. Silent Struggle (3:09), 30. Black and White (2:56), 31. Ominous Sign (3:29), 32. Shadow Conflict (2:45), 33. Confrontation (2:33), 34. Tyrant Tension (3:41), 35. Taekwondo Comic (3:02), 36. Slowly Sneaky (3:19), 37. Consommé of Dried Pollock (1:59), 38. Whoops Whoops (3:13), 39. Sugar Party (2:50), 40. Seok Soo Mission (3:02), 41. The Last Tiny Exit (3:04), 42. Time Slip (2:15), 43. In the Kitchen (3:40), 44. Foolish Man (3:03), 45. Fun Taste (3:20), 46. Is This Josun (2:03), 47. Raucous Kitchen (2:55), 48. Taste Sword Dance (0:53), 49. Lovely You (3:13), 50. Haute Cuisine (3:34), 51. Beautiful Table (2:57), 52. The Greatest Taste (3:16), 53. Iris (4:11), 54. Under the Sky of Blossoms (3:48), 55. Missing You (4:24), 56. Taste of the Heart (2:48), 57. Curious Tension (3:16), 58. Chase (2:42), 59. The Last Due (3:16), 60. Food Story (Ending Title) (4:12). Music Recipe/Studio Dragon, 191 minutes 53 seconds.

CALL THE MIDWIFE [S14] – Maurizio Malagnini

Call the Midwife is a British period drama based on the best-selling autobiographical novels by Jennifer Worth, set in the East End of London, originally in the late 1950s, and moving into the 1970s. The series follows a group of nurse midwives and Anglican nuns from Nonnatus House as they provide healthcare – especially childbirth and maternal care – to London’s poor. The show blends personal stories, medical cases, and social history, tackling real world issues such as poverty, illness, immigration, housing, race, and public health, as well as the personal lives of the women at the center of the story. The show first aired way back in 2012, and its fourteenth season aired earlier in 2025; the fifteenth and final season is due to premiere on the BBC in January 2026.

The first couple of seasons of Call the Midwife were scored by British composer Peter Salem, but in 2015 he was replaced by Italian composer Maurizio Malagnini, who has scored every season since then, plus 11 feature-length Christmas specials. Although he has been the recipient of a great deal of acclaim within the industry, including winning the IFMCA Score of the Year Award in 2021, Malagnini for me remains one of the greatest under-discovered composers working in global film and TV music today. Every score he has written – The Paradise, Peter & Wendy, Coppelia – has been an unqualified masterpiece, and Call the Midwife is very much the same.

Part of the problem, though – and this is possibly the main reason why he is so under-discovered – is the fact that very little of his music is released as a soundtrack. In an era when even the most dull and banal TV scores seem to get lavish multi-hour releases of every season, there have been just three releases of music from Call the Midwife: the first, released, in 2012, contained mostly period songs plus a few tracks from Salem’s score for season 1. The second album, released in 2018, featured highlights from Malagnini’s scores from seasons 4–7, and now this third release contains highlights from Malagnini’s scores from seasons 8–14.

The music is astonishing. Fully orchestral, often led by piano, and often incorporating a choir, it is dramatic, nostalgic, romantic, sometimes heartbreaking, and always staggeringly beautiful. This has been a hallmark of Malagnini’s music throughout his career, and it is very much in evidence here.

To concentrate firstly on the music specifically from Season 14 (marked with an asterisk* below), it begins with “A Christmas Morning,” which has a wholesome, pretty sound full of warmth and comfort. “The Fugitive” is a little darker and combines gut-wrenching string-led emotion with more intense and aggressive action rhythms which bring a new dimension to the score, and show what Malagnini is capable of in that setting. “Memories from China” uses the cello like an erhu to reflect a taste of the far east. “Redemption” features soulful, moving, nostalgic brass writing. “Look Into Your Soul” is gentle and tender, with some notably gorgeous writing for woodwinds. Tragedy underpins the pianos and cellos in “Silently Escaping.”

“Cyril Opens to Rosalind” becomes rhapsodic and deeply romantic as it develops. “A New Miracle” is as heartfelt and magical is at sounds – the flourishes that Malagnini adorns his pianos lines with are sublime – and then “Magnificat” is a gorgeous liturgical piece for orchestra and choir singing in English, but in a Latin style, that grows to a spectacular sweeping climax.

The rest of the album, as I said, comprises music from seasons 8–13, and it’s equally as good. So many cues impress with their effortless beauty and overwhelming emotional content – the celebratory “Fireworks in Poplar, the lush “Life Emerges From Darkness,” the tender “Mother Is Back,” and the fairy-tale lullaby sound of “Bedtime Story,” all from Season 12; the inviting guitars of “The Proposal,” from Season 10, the tumultuous pianos in “Louisa” from Season 11 – it just goes on and on. That it would be easier to simply recommend everything and leave it there. Malagnini weaves multiple recurring themes though all this too, resulting in a score which is as technically adept and meaningful as it is gorgeous.

Elsewhere, the noble patriotism of “Lunar Landing” from Season 13 is Malagnini’s best James Horner impression. “The Train Crash” from Season 11 is appropriately action-packed and powerful. Perhaps the showstoppers are the elegantly impressionistic and rhapsodic “Birth During the Night” from Season 13 which becomes much more intense and vibrant during its middle third, and then “Flying Over Your Dreams” from Season 10 which is bold and dramatic and effortlessly captures the sense of freedom and expressiveness of flight in the most magnificent way imaginable. The album then concludes with an updated version of Peter Salem’s “The Adventure of Life,” arranged by Malagnini for a more fulsome ensemble

As I mentioned, Call the Midwife will be ending after season 15 in 2026, and it is my hope that this – coupled with Malagnini’s recent relocation from London to Los Angeles – results in him finally being discovered by the ‘mainstream’ and that his talents are brought to bear on a greater and varied number of projects going forward. People need to know how good Maurizio Malagnini is; we’ve waited long enough. In the meantime, Call the Midwife is one of the most special TV scores of 2025.

Track Listing: 1. A Christmas Morning (1:56)*, 2. Fireworks in Poplar (1:46), 3. Lunar Landing (1:23), 4. Life Emerges From Darkness (2:04), 5. Mother Is Back (1:07), 6. Bedtime Story (2:42), 7. The Fugitive (2:03)*, 8. Flowers in the River (2:34), 9. The Proposal (1:26), 10. Alice (1:27), 11. Louisa (2:31), 12. Memories from China (2:21)*, 13. Lucille and Cyril’s Wedding (2:03), 14. Birth During the Night (6:46), 15. Water Is Life (2:08), 16. Redemption (1:48)*, 17. Flying Over Your Dreams (2:46), 18. Look Into Your Soul (2:35)*, 19. Mrs. Higgins Memories (1:46), 20. Silently Escaping (1:55)*, 21. Cyril Opens to Rosalind (1:26)*, 22. The Train Crash (2:33), 23. A New Miracle (3:12)*, 24. Trixie and Matthew’s Engagement (2:01), 25. Magnificat (1:57)*, 26. Ad Aeternum (1:15), 27. The Adventure of Life – 2025 Version (2:30). Dubois Records, 60 minutes 05 seconds.

A MOUSE HUNT FOR CHRISTMAS – Stein Johan Grieg Halvorsen and Eyvind Andreas Skeie

A Mouse Hunt For Christmas – known as Hvis Ingen Går I Fella in its native language – is a Norwegian family comedy adventure film directed by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken. It follows a family – father Pål Sverre Hagen, mother Sara Khorami, son Vegard Strand Eide, and daughter Flo Fagerli – who travel to their aunt’s house in the countryside to celebrate Christmas. However, when they arrive there, they discover that a family of mice already inhabits the house, and they are not interested in having human visitors – and so begins a battle of wits between man and mouse, with both families trying to drive the other out of the house! It’s a bit like Home Alone, if Kevin and his family were mice, setting booby traps for humans instead of burglars, but it’s wholesome fun for the festive season as has been a popular hit in its home country.

The score for A Mouse Hunt For Christmas is by the Norwegian composing duo Stein Johan Grieg Halvorsen and Eyvind Andreas Skeie, who have previously written several scores I enjoyed, including Teddybjørnens Jul in 2022, Helt Super also in 2022, and Kapten Sabeltann Og Grevinnen Av Gral from earlier this year. Halvorsen is the great-great-nephew of classical giant Edvard Grieg and is a former comedy actor, half of the popular duo Erlend & SteinJo who rose to fame in the 1990s.

This is by far the most impressive and enjoyable work I have heard from them to date. Much of the score has a wonderfully wintry, Christmassy sound, inviting and nostalgic, with a lovely main theme that is introduced in “Åpning” for pianos and tinkling bells backed by strings, and which appears later in cues like “Lyset På,” “Herlighet Så Dumt,” “Jeg Er Ikke Farlig” the pretty “Gjennoppliving,” and the conclusive “Slutten” to enhance the cozy seasonal feeling. Halvorsen and Skeie occasionally quote traditional Christmas carols in their score too – “O Come All Ye Faithful” in “Han Er Vennen Min,” for example – which I have always found appealing. Norwegians seem to be especially good at this sound, as evidenced previously by people like Henrik Skram and Gaute Storaas.

Counterbalancing all this is the light comedy and mischievous action which underscores the various encounters between the humans and the mice as they stage increasingly elaborate traps intended to force the others out of the cottage. There is a fun, light-hearted energy to cues like “Huset Rister”, “I Dusjen/Brødristerkanon,” “Snurrestol,” “Til Badet/Du Brenner,” “Musefeller,” and the fantastic and exciting “Kom Da Lille Mus,” all of which are full of lively, intricate, rambunctious orchestral passages full of movement and clever instrumental interplay, and are often backed by appropriately festive percussion sounds to maintain the overall tone.

Throughout the score I kept finding myself thinking of children’s scores by John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Bruce Broughton, and people like that, and fans of those composers will certainly find large parts of this score very appealing. Unusually, a lot of the woodwind writing especially reminded me of the clarinet parts of Catch Me If You Can – listen especially to the end credits cue “Rulletekst” – which is not something I expected but which I appreciated anyway.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack for A Mouse Hunt For Christmas has not been released as a physical CD, but it is available to stream on Youtube (search for its Norwegian title), and to download via most other major digital music services on the Topscore Music label.

Track Listing: 1. Åpning (4:04), 2. Huset Rister/Familien Ankommer (1:44), 3. Jula Er Avlyst/Lyset På/Vi Er Forberedt (2:26), 4. Da Er Det Klart/Perfekt Pappa/Bare Stearinlyd (2:13), 6. Herlighet Så Dumt (0:42), 7. Jeg Er Ikke Farlig (3:49), 8. Tok Med Litt Mat/Chilikaffe (1:17), 9. I Dusjen/Brødristerkanon (2:36), 10 Snurrestol (1:07), 11 Fire In The Hole (1:16), 12 Til Badet/Du Brenner (1:31), 13 Zoomout (1:08), 14 Han Er Vennen Min (1:21), 16 Hun Er Bare Nysgjerrig (0:30), 17 Musefeller (1:47), 18 Trenger Noe Mer Humant (2:40), 20 Kom Da Lille Mus (4:34), 21 Gjennoppliving (2:11), 22 Du Lever/Stor Jente (1:05), 23 Slutten (1:44), 24 Rulletekst (2:05). Topscore Music, 41 minutes 59 seconds.

THE PRISONER OF BEAUTY – Hu Xiao

The Prisoner of Beauty is a Chinese period romantic TV drama series, adapted from the novel “Zhe Yao” by Peng Lai Ke, directed by Deng Ke and Gao Cong Kai, and starring Song Zuer and Liu Yuning. The film is a fairly traditional Romeo and Juliet-style romance, set in feudal China, in which the beautiful Xiao Qiao is betrothed in married by her parents to Shao Wei, the handsome son of a rival clan. Although their relationship is intended to be a strategic one intended to end the bitter rivalry between the clans, Xiao Qiao and Shao Wei are initially off wary of each other, but over time learn to overcome their differences and bring some peace to their world. The show aired for 36 episodes starting back in May 2025, and was a popular domestic success.

The score for The Prisoner of Beauty is by the US-based Chinese composer Hu Xiao, who is known for scoring successful movies in the Detective Chinatown series (2018-2021), as well as The Island (2018), My People My Homeland (2020), Lost in the Stars (2022), and The Legend of Zang Hai from earlier this year, often working with composer Nathan Wang.

As one would expect, The Prisoner of Beauty is a scored drenched in passionate romance, and is full of beautiful love themes and rich expressions of heartfelt emotion, coupled with some sequences of more intense drama and action for scenes involving the clan wars. As is often the case with scores like these, Xiao blends a modern western symphony orchestra with an array of traditional Chinese instruments, creating a gorgeous celebration of the two musical cultures.

The score is sensational from start to finish, but several cues stand out as being especially appealing: the heartfelt tenderness of the opening cue “Heart Cocoon,” the sweeping melodrama of “Old Traces,” the fragile intimacy of “Snow-Covered Eyebrows,” the more urgent intensity of “Ripped Silk,” the powerful brassy drive of “Court” and “Locking the Grudge,” the sometimes brutal action of “Nine Provinces Soul” and “Scattered Clouds,” the wistful solemnity of “Snow Melt,” the dainty playfulness of “Daily” and “Catching Butterflies” … it just goes on and on. The score climaxes on a significantly emotional but quite poignant note with “Floating Raft” and the dreamy vocals “Ear Temples,” both of which are just outstanding.

Truthfully, every cue is special, and will appeal enormously to those whose taste gravitates towards the overtly romantic, especially when that romance comes adorned with the unique sounds and flavors of China. Hu Xiao is clearly an exceptionally talented composer, and I will be seeking out all of his future scores with enthusiasm. The score for The Prisoner of Beauty is available as an import CD from retailers like YesAsia, and is also available to stream and download from most of the usual online sources.

Track Listing: 1. Heart Cocoon (4:30), 2. Old Traces (2:31), 3. Snow-Covered Eyebrows (1:46), 4. Weak Water (3:46), 5. Ripped Silk (2:45), 6. Court (1:24), 7. Dark Arrow (1:58), 8. Locking The Grudge (1:50), 9. Nine Provinces Soil (2:40), 10. Scattered Clouds (2:47), 11. Snow Melt (2:10), 12. Daily (1:49), 13. Flowers Fall (2:14), 14. Catching Butterflies (1:37), 15. Witty (1:33), 16. Echoes (1:12), 17. Discipline (2:18), 18. Gradually Fading Away (1:33), 19. Startled Bow (1:29), 20. Reflection (2:02), 21. Close At Hand (1:36), 22. Floating Raft (5:10), 23. Ear Temples (2:15). Chengdu Whale’s Voice Culture Communication Co., Ltd., 62 minutes 36 seconds.

SUPER FURBALL AND THE LYING SQUIRREL – Panu Aaltio

Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel – Supermarsu Ja Suuri Huijaus in its native Finnish – is the third film in the Supermarsu series of films from director Joona Tena, based on the novels by Paula Noronen about a young girl named Emilia who can transform into a flying guinea pig super hero. This story sees Emilia and her friends trying to save a forest near their home from a greedy road developer – and, with it, the water source which gives Emilia her superpowers – by inventing an elaborate lie about an endangered flying squirrel inhabiting the woods.

The score for Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel is by composer Panu Aaltio who, at this point, has firmly established himself as Finland’s greatest working film composer, on the strength of his three IFMCA-winning documentary scores Tale of a Forest, Tale of a Lake, Tale of the Sleeping Giants, his two previous Super Furball scores, and other notable works like The Home of Dark Butterflies (2009), Dawn of the Dragonslayer (2009), The Island of Secrets (2015), 95 (2017), Finders of the Lost Yacht (2021), Peruna (2021), and Rangers of the Lost Ring (2023). Like its predecessors in the series, Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel is a big, bold, thematic children’s action-adventure score, one of the most satisfying works in the genre this year.

In the album’s press notes Aaltio says: “At this point writing music for Super Furball is like returning home, as this is the third film in the series. It’s been wonderful developing old themes, and coming up with new ones like the squirrel’s whimsical yet melodramatic theme, as well as an anthem for the forest the students try to save. This is probably the most thematic of the three Super Furball scores, with multiple themes often intertwining to tell a story from many angles. What remains constant throughout all of them is a celebration of melody, which you will find a lot in here!”

And he’s right: Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel is full of melody. The score is anchored by the now familiar main Super Furball theme, and it’s everywhere in the score, but it’s what Aaltio does with it that’s impressive, ranging from traditional heroics in “Margarine World,” the title track “Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel,” “Plant Photography,” and “Meeting the Squirrel” to the eerie mystery of “The Activity Park,” the modern electro-acoustic action dynamics of “Sipper Bottle,” the sinister drama of “Guinea Pig’s School Visit,” the lyrical pathos at the beginning of “The Flying Squirrel Plot,” and so much more. The theme is embedded so deeply into the fabric of the music that some part of it – a couple of notes, or a full reprise – appears in basically every cue to some degree, and the amount of mileage Aaltio gets from that is very impressive.

The new squirrel theme is prominent in cues like “Meeting the Squirrel,” “Sneaking Around,” the lively “The Flying Squirrel Plot,” and the action-packed “The Great Swindle” and cleverly it appears to be a variation on the main Super Furball theme that takes the initial notes but then heads off in a new direction. The ‘forest anthem’ gets an impressively rousing statement in several cues, while other cues of note include the jazzy caper stylings of “Deforestation Plan,” the rowdy action of “Bottle Emergency,” the Giacchino-esque drive of “Reconnaissance Operation,” the lovely lyricism in “The Lying Squirrel” and the vociferous energy of the final sequence from “Squirrel Emergency” through the end of the majestic “Save the Forest”. Throughout it all Aaltio’s writing is crisp, clear, dynamic, and overflowing with all the right amounts of energy, pathos, and light-hearted fun.

The score for Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel is available to stream and download via MovieScore Media, here: https://moviescoremedia.com/newsite/catalogue/super-furball-and-the-lying-squirrel-panu-aaltio/ and I recommend it unhesitatingly to anyone who enjoyed fun, lively, unassumingly optimistic children’s adventure scores.

Track Listing: 1. Margarine World (1:35), 2. Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel (1:46), 3. Plant Photography (3:03), 4. The Activity Park (1:57), 5. Sipper Bottle (1:58), 6. Unfriendly Competition (1:36), 7. Deforestation Plan (1:48), 8. Flying Back Home (1:54), 9. Let the Kids Decide (2:12), 10. Meeting the Squirrel (1:44), 11. Bottle Emergency (1:52), 12. The Grease Lord (3:01), 13. Guinea Pig’s School Visit (3:28), 14. Reconnaissance Operation (2:24), 15. New Rules (2:01), 16. Schemes (1:58), 17. Sweet Apathy (2:27), 18. Sneaking Around (3:10), 19. The Flying Squirrel Plot (1:45), 20. Finding the Cloak (2:38), 21. The Great Swindle (2:57), 22. The Lying Squirrel (2:42), 23. Squirrel Emergency (2:28), 24. Showdown (3:30), 25. Mini Furball (1:45), 26. Save the Forest (2:48), 27. End Credits Suite (1:42). Moviescore Media MMS-25020, 61 minutes 54 seconds.