MovieScore Media release the score to Better Days. Directed by Derek Tsang, the movie tells the story of Chen Nian, a bullied teenage girl who forms an unlikely friendship with the mysterious Xiao Bei who protects her from her assailants, all the while she copes with the pressures of her final examinations...

Varqa Buehrer's score for Better Days represents a slow building, thematically rich collection of set pieces. The album contains 12 tracks (31 min, 36 sec) and while it's painfully short, it's also incredibly beautiful.

Talking about the project, Buehrer says: "In our early discussions about the score, Derek [Director Derek Tsang] was very adamant that we should treat Chen Nian and Xiao Bei’s story with sufficient gravity and seriousness. I’m really grateful for this approach, as there is easily a tendency to gravitate towards sensationalism when you have two of the most famous talents in China on screen. We went through many revisions to find the right sonic palette, keeping in mind the innocence and optimism that lies stubborn in youth, but being a little more daring when it came time to lay bare the juxtaposing reality of the cruelty of human nature. In doing so, we tailored the sound of the pianos for each scene in order to strike the right emotional tone for that moment, and even musical drones and pads were slowly crafted over time to ensure every sound heard in the film adds value to the characters’ experience. Much like telling the story of a close friend, I was motivated to approach it truthfully and with much care and sincerity."

The score uses piano and strings as it's main instruments. It's subtle, it's sweet, but above all it's painfully beautiful.

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Darren Rea