Dir: Elizabeth Lo | Doc 95′
A lyrical aria from Puccini ‘Mio Babbino Caro’ seems a fitting opening accompaniment to this film about marital strife and infidelity. A Chinese couple are having dinner. They are clearly at odds. The wife suspects her husband of cheating. And in Beijing this entitles her to engage the services of a professional ‘snoop’ who will be invited to join the couple for a meal to sound out the husband’s issues. ‘But not for long’ advises the ‘dispeller’. ‘Men don’t like to talk that much’.
In China, a new industry has emerged devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Wang Zhenxi is part of this growing profession, a “mistress dispeller” who is hired to maintain the bonds of marriage — and break up affairs — by any means necessary.
Mistress Dispeller follows a real, unfolding case of infidelity as Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis. Their story revels the confusion and mixed emotions that can blow a marriage off course. And we gain a real understanding of the dynamic between the trio: mistress, wife and husband.
Hong Kong native Elizabeth Lo’s second film couldn’t be more different from her feature 2020 debut Stray that followed an ownerless dog around Istanbul. But both films share the same sense of poignant defeat and abandonment.
Mistress Dispeller is also very much about that sense of belonging, or ownership. That of a husband by his wife. The doc gives us intimate access to a real love triangle. The detective serves as a dispute resolver, councillor and a shoulder to cry on: Shame and failure being something that the Orientals find difficult to admit to. Divorce – the only alternative – and its aftermath ‘the dating scene’ – involves a sad litany of singletons searching for a soulmate through the small ads. So there’s a vested interest on all sides to heal the rift so the divorce court can be avoided at all costs. Wang skilfully manipulates the husband into giving up his ‘flirt’ so the mistress feels revalued and loses interest. But can feelings be so easily rationalised? Is it that simplistic?
During a meal with the married couple the wife engineers an excuse to go out leaving Wang to tease out the husband’s feelings. He admits to have developed a close friendship with a work contact. “With my wife it’s real life, with Fei Fei it’s like being in the sun”.
Surprisingly the wife takes a pragmatic approach aware that there is so much at stake. The husband’s pretty young friend is seen encouraging him to come with her to a local peony festival while the dispeller works on lowering the mistress’s expectations by providing her with the husband’s negative feedback gleaned during a follow up tete a tete with him. Once feelings are aired in a calm and frank exchange of views everyone gains clarity and the husband acknowledges that his wife and child are the most important people in his life and he needs to focus on improving that relationship. It’s a ‘win win’ situation for all sides, avoiding unnecessary heartache in the long run.
With imaginative camerawork and an operatic score this is another sensitive and intelligent film from Lo, and her co-writer Charlotte Munch Bengtsen. @MeredithTaylor
MISTRESS DISPELLER has its world premiere at Venice on 2 September 2024