LONDON – Hong Kong-based film-maker Elizabeth Lo’s quest to document modern relationships in China led her to a little-known practice to tackle infidelity, discovering that people catching their spouses cheating can hire a professional to end the affair.
Her 2024 documentary Mistress Dispeller gives a close-up glimpse into what is a relatively new industry in China.
Shot over four months, the film follows the real-life case of Mr and Mrs Li. The badminton-loving parents of one are considered a model couple by many in their neighbourhood. Lately, however, Mr Li has been getting close to a young woman from a nearby town, Fei Fei.
Anguished, Mrs Li reaches out to Teacher Wang, an experienced mistress dispeller.
The film opened exclusively at Singapore indie cinema The Projector in February, but was only recently released in Britain in August and is slated for an October release in the US.
Lo and her team met dozens of mistress dispellers, but Wang was the only one able to persuade her clients to go on camera.
Lo said seeing it unfold in front of her, her sympathies kept shifting from the wife to the husband to even the mistress, which took her by surprise.
Mrs Li (left) and Mr Li in Mistress Dispeller.
PHOTO: THE PROJECTOR
It took her team three years of following Wang, filming multiple cases, before they landed on the Lis.
The film shows Wang infiltrating the family under a false identity and, after gaining Mr Li and Fei Fei’s trust, influencing them to break up.
In order to authentically capture the process, the husband and the mistress could not be let in on the film’s concept and were approached to participate in a documentary about modern love in China.
A disclaimer at the start of the film declares that none of the scenes are scripted or re-enacted, and the subjects agreed to participate in it.
“We really grappled with how we stay ethical as a production when we can’t be transparent at first,” said Lo.
“We knew that we would show them a cut of the film and give them the opportunity to re-consent to being a part of it. We were very prepared that if they were to drop out, we could pivot to a different film.”
Mistress Dispeller combines sweeping drone shots of bustling cities and wilderness landscapes with fly-on-the-wall scenes capturing intimate conversations.
Director Elizabeth Lo shot Mistress Dispeller, about a real-life case of a couple whose husband had an affair, over four months.
PHOTO: TOM TANG
“I really wanted audiences to be able to watch the organic interplay between characters. What strings does Teacher Wang pull that elicit what reaction? She’s 10 steps ahead of everybody constantly,” Lo said.
Lo, whose previous feature Stray (2020) centred on street dogs in Istanbul, hopes Mistress Dispeller will encourage audiences to reflect on their own approaches to love and forgiveness.
“We’re all sort of fumbling through love and trying to find love, sustain love and to keep it,” she said. REUTERS