Advertisement

Review | Venice 2024: Mistress Dispeller movie review – documentary’s unique look at love in China

Absorbing and at times hard to watch, Elisabeth Lo’s film shows a wife who hires a professional breaker-up of affairs to save her marriage

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Wang Zhenxi is a mistress dispeller based in Luoyang, China. Elizabeth Lo, a Hong Kong-born film director, follows her for her new film, Mistress Dispeller. Photo: Mistress Dispeller

4/5 stars

Advertisement

At the beginning of Elizabeth Lo’s absorbing and often painful-to-watch documentary, a caption informs us that in China, professionals can be hired to intervene in the midst of marital discord and break up an ongoing affair.

All those featured in Mistress Dispeller, which premiered today in the Orrizonti section at the Venice Film Festival, agreed to be filmed, which feels a little strange given the covert nature of the operation here. You are left wondering what was said to them.

Mrs Li is first seen at the hairdressers – a shot that will be repeated with her love rival in the finale – with a solitary tear in her eye.

MISTRESS DISPELLER | TIFF 2024

After intercepting an intimate-sounding text message, she suspects her husband is enjoying time with a younger woman. Able to imagine other families enduring extramarital affairs, she can’t quite bring herself to think of her own under such duress, wailing that if they divorce, she has no idea who their child will live with.

Advertisement

When she brings in Wang Zhenxi, this dynamic “mistress dispeller” arrives as a new friend, and badminton partner, ostensibly to fool her spouse and draw out information.

Advertisement