Ma Xue

Yang, a nurse with an unusually selective sense of smell, can tolerate only disinfectant and lemon—until she encounters the scent of Fang, a man in a vegetative state. As she imagines her way into his memories, guilt and forbidden desires, the boundaries between intimacy, projection and death begin to dissolve. Moving between waking life and dream, Aroma is a dark contemporary fairy tale about the body, desire, and love that refuses to disappear when the body does.

Yang Fan lives in Yanjiao, which is separated from Beijing by the White River, during the quarantine. Her routine is pretty simple, cooking, cleaning and trying to abide by the rules. Her husband on the other hand, seems to be entangled in a voyeuristic/masturbatory web, where a classic painting of a woman hanging on the wall of her bedroom plays a crucial role. The two of them have sex, but things become more complicated when Yang Fan also starts sleeping with the enigmatic waiter of a restaurant she frequents, who has the tendency to pee under a tree every night after he closes shop. Instead of fighting, the three embark on a threesome trip that soon starts involving other people.

Li and his wife A Yu run a small business in Thailand and enjoy a happy home life with their two daughters. When their eldest daughter is violently assaulted, blackmailed and left traumatised by another student, her parents intervene, leading to a dead body which needs to be hidden, and every trace of the boy buried to cover up the accident.

Baiye is a small border town where trains run through each day, heading toward the other side. Now nearly deserted, silent and still, the town is a place people rarely return to once they leave. One day, a young woman arrives with ashes, on her way to visit a mother.

Seeking the true meaning of love, a woman travels to Paris and stays in the hotel room where Oscar Wilde spent his final days. There, she meets a stranger and starts a surreal love experiment with him—one that culminates in her imprisoning him in that very room.

Dong Bin has opened a surfing shop by the sea where Xiao Fang started working. The young man, however, seems to be on the run from himself, not being able to move beyond his grief and guilt for an accident that took place when he was still in school. He spends his days doing nothing outside of working, essentially just waiting for time to pass, with no particular purpose. Things change when two individuals his age, Yuan Yong and Yang Fan, appear in the shop, searching for a surfing board not to surf, but to take photographs on. An initially aggravated Xiao Fang eventually becomes friends with them, and the three start hanging out, with their relationship finding its zenith on a night out that ends up in a rather eventful karaoke. It turns out that Yuan Yong is trying to escape his parents' arrangements and Yang Fan is looking for a future in a life that seems as vague as Xiao Fang's.

Yang, a nurse with an unusually selective sense of smell, can tolerate only disinfectant and lemon—until she encounters the scent of Fang, a man in a vegetative state. As she imagines her way into his memories, guilt and forbidden desires, the boundaries between intimacy, projection and death begin to dissolve. Moving between waking life and dream, Aroma is a dark contemporary fairy tale about the body, desire, and love that refuses to disappear when the body does.

Yang, a nurse with an unusually selective sense of smell, can tolerate only disinfectant and lemon—until she encounters the scent of Fang, a man in a vegetative state. As she imagines her way into his memories, guilt and forbidden desires, the boundaries between intimacy, projection and death begin to dissolve. Moving between waking life and dream, Aroma is a dark contemporary fairy tale about the body, desire, and love that refuses to disappear when the body does.

Yang, a nurse with an unusually selective sense of smell, can tolerate only disinfectant and lemon—until she encounters the scent of Fang, a man in a vegetative state. As she imagines her way into his memories, guilt and forbidden desires, the boundaries between intimacy, projection and death begin to dissolve. Moving between waking life and dream, Aroma is a dark contemporary fairy tale about the body, desire, and love that refuses to disappear when the body does.

Yang Fan lives in Yanjiao, which is separated from Beijing by the White River, during the quarantine. Her routine is pretty simple, cooking, cleaning and trying to abide by the rules. Her husband on the other hand, seems to be entangled in a voyeuristic/masturbatory web, where a classic painting of a woman hanging on the wall of her bedroom plays a crucial role. The two of them have sex, but things become more complicated when Yang Fan also starts sleeping with the enigmatic waiter of a restaurant she frequents, who has the tendency to pee under a tree every night after he closes shop. Instead of fighting, the three embark on a threesome trip that soon starts involving other people.

Yang Fan lives in Yanjiao, which is separated from Beijing by the White River, during the quarantine. Her routine is pretty simple, cooking, cleaning and trying to abide by the rules. Her husband on the other hand, seems to be entangled in a voyeuristic/masturbatory web, where a classic painting of a woman hanging on the wall of her bedroom plays a crucial role. The two of them have sex, but things become more complicated when Yang Fan also starts sleeping with the enigmatic waiter of a restaurant she frequents, who has the tendency to pee under a tree every night after he closes shop. Instead of fighting, the three embark on a threesome trip that soon starts involving other people.

Yang Fan lives in Yanjiao, which is separated from Beijing by the White River, during the quarantine. Her routine is pretty simple, cooking, cleaning and trying to abide by the rules. Her husband on the other hand, seems to be entangled in a voyeuristic/masturbatory web, where a classic painting of a woman hanging on the wall of her bedroom plays a crucial role. The two of them have sex, but things become more complicated when Yang Fan also starts sleeping with the enigmatic waiter of a restaurant she frequents, who has the tendency to pee under a tree every night after he closes shop. Instead of fighting, the three embark on a threesome trip that soon starts involving other people.

Li and his wife A Yu run a small business in Thailand and enjoy a happy home life with their two daughters. When their eldest daughter is violently assaulted, blackmailed and left traumatised by another student, her parents intervene, leading to a dead body which needs to be hidden, and every trace of the boy buried to cover up the accident.

Baiye is a small border town where trains run through each day, heading toward the other side. Now nearly deserted, silent and still, the town is a place people rarely return to once they leave. One day, a young woman arrives with ashes, on her way to visit a mother.

Seeking the true meaning of love, a woman travels to Paris and stays in the hotel room where Oscar Wilde spent his final days. There, she meets a stranger and starts a surreal love experiment with him—one that culminates in her imprisoning him in that very room.

Seeking the true meaning of love, a woman travels to Paris and stays in the hotel room where Oscar Wilde spent his final days. There, she meets a stranger and starts a surreal love experiment with him—one that culminates in her imprisoning him in that very room.

Dong Bin has opened a surfing shop by the sea where Xiao Fang started working. The young man, however, seems to be on the run from himself, not being able to move beyond his grief and guilt for an accident that took place when he was still in school. He spends his days doing nothing outside of working, essentially just waiting for time to pass, with no particular purpose. Things change when two individuals his age, Yuan Yong and Yang Fan, appear in the shop, searching for a surfing board not to surf, but to take photographs on. An initially aggravated Xiao Fang eventually becomes friends with them, and the three start hanging out, with their relationship finding its zenith on a night out that ends up in a rather eventful karaoke. It turns out that Yuan Yong is trying to escape his parents' arrangements and Yang Fan is looking for a future in a life that seems as vague as Xiao Fang's.

Dong Bin has opened a surfing shop by the sea where Xiao Fang started working. The young man, however, seems to be on the run from himself, not being able to move beyond his grief and guilt for an accident that took place when he was still in school. He spends his days doing nothing outside of working, essentially just waiting for time to pass, with no particular purpose. Things change when two individuals his age, Yuan Yong and Yang Fan, appear in the shop, searching for a surfing board not to surf, but to take photographs on. An initially aggravated Xiao Fang eventually becomes friends with them, and the three start hanging out, with their relationship finding its zenith on a night out that ends up in a rather eventful karaoke. It turns out that Yuan Yong is trying to escape his parents' arrangements and Yang Fan is looking for a future in a life that seems as vague as Xiao Fang's.