TIFF Review: “Mistress Dispeller”

Mistress Dispeller (Elizabeth Lo, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars

There is a profession in China known as a “mistress dispeller,” where the role is to end a romantic affair that a husband is having outside of marriage. If done well, the business is concluded without undue drama, though feelings will most certainly be hurt. In her eponymously titled documentary, director Elizabeth Lo (Stray) follows one such case, taking the viewer from start to finish, through lows and highs, showing the process in all its intricate technicalities. Fascinating doesn’t do it justice.

There are four central players here: Wang Zhenxi (the dispeller, also known as Teacher Wang), Mrs. Li, Mr. Li, and the mistress, Fei Fei. Mrs. Li is the one who hires Teacher Wang, first meeting with her in the company of her own brother to tell the most complete story of the circumstances possible. Text cards in the beginning explain both what a mistress dispeller does and how all the filmed participants were initially approached and then, as the story developed, how they reconfirmed their willingness to be a part of the film.

After getting all the facts from Mrs. Li, Teacher Wang is ready to proceed. Fei Fei is much younger than Mrs. Li, who is a contemporary of her husband. That and the fact that she is someone new, whom Mr. Li met in the course of work, drives much of her appeal. Beyond the affair, the married couple appears to have a close-enough rapport, playing badminton together and engaging in comfortable conversation. They also share a teenage daughter (who remains mostly off-camera).

Teacher Wang’s modus operandi involves arranging for Mrs. Li to engineer a meeting between her and Mr. Li, with Wang pretending to be a friend of hers. Then, on cue, Mrs. Li leaves, allowing Wang to spend time alone with Mr. Li and skillfully manipulate him, via an open manner, to admitting the affair. Her goal is to determine whether or not he still loves his wife, as well as assess the strength of his attachment to Fei Fei.

From there, Lo dives ever more deeply into the complexities of the human heart, revealing all the different shades of sentiment therein. One of the most admirable qualities of Teacher Wang is her refusal, at least within this documentary, to condemn anyone for their behavior. She reserves a lot of sympathy for Fei Fei, since she thinks that it is usually the mistress who is the most unhappy in situations like this. Agree with her or not, it’s this openness of spirit that makes her so good at her job.

As engaging as the movie may be—complete with lyrical interludes scored to pieces such as Giacomo Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro”—it’s almost too short (something I almost never say), as by the end there are lingering details, particularly about Fei Fei’s backstory, that remain undisclosed. Lo also spends a lot of time meditating on the nature of love in today’s China that, ideally, urge more examination. But these are also strengths, leaving us wanting more. However one feels about the balance, Mistress Dispeller remains compelling, throughout.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.