Screened in the Bright Future Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, this Chinese film White River is unusual in many ways: it was officially produced in South Korea, but it is practically a Chinese film and has an uncommonly significant number of erotic scenes for a Chinese movie, and had a female director, MA Xue. As female film critic Jessica McGoff wrote, the film “effortlessly subverts the dominant representation of female sexuality, eschewing objectification to discover new forms of sensuality.” The erotic depictions in White River feel different from those of male directors. Yang Fan, who lives in Yanjiao, a Chinese bedroom town, is the protagonist. The film explores the sexual coexistence of Yang Fan, her voyeuristic husband, and a restaurant owner, blending with frankness and a sense of fantasy. This is the debut film of director MA Xue, who worked on many major Chinese films as a producer and went to university in South Korea. (MOON Seok)