‘Mistress Dispeller’ Review: A Wise Look at China’s Love Industry

Elizabeth Lo’s new documentary, Mistress Dispeller, opens with a title card explaining that nothing we’re about to see was scripted or re-enacted. At first, this looks like a reasonably generic little bit of documentary boilerplate, however as soon as we’ve seen how intimate and unguarded the issues that Lo will get on digicam are, in addition to how elegantly they’re captured, the information that it was all achieved utterly organically turns into fairly outstanding.

The title of Lo’s movie refers to a personal investigator-like service accessible to married girls in China who’ve found that their husbands are dishonest on them. In contrast to a personal investigator, the dispeller isn’t tasked with gathering proof of the affair to be able to expedite the divorce course of however to chase the opposite lady away in order that the wedding can proceed.

The documentary correct begins with middle-aged married couple Mr. and Mrs. Li having dinner at house. At this level, Mr. Li believes that he’s participating in a documentary about love and relationship in fashionable China. Through the meal, the husband and spouse barely speak to at least one one other, with Mr. Li opening his mouth solely to shovel in additional meals and explaining that he’ll be going out as soon as they’re executed. On his approach out, the digicam captures his reflection dancing throughout the smiling household images that line the partitions. And as we watch the door shut behind him, the mirror subsequent to it catches his spouse’s pained expression—a wonderfully composed picture of an sad marriage.

Mrs. Li is aware of that her husband is dishonest on her however is ashamed to confront him instantly, so she calls skilled dispeller Wang Zhenxi to assist resolve issues. Of their first assembly, Mrs. Li admits that she “may think about an affair taking place in any household, besides my very own.” Later, with a mix of rage and sorrow, we’ll hear her inform her husband that she “doesn’t know the place his coronary heart has gone.” The movie abounds in such eloquent and poignant musings from its topics.

The melancholy of the Li family is rapidly damaged by the introduction of Wang, who performs her function with the zealous depth of somebody who doesn’t simply love their job however actually believes in it. Her zany schemes contain having Mrs. Li introduce her to Mr. Li as a brand new buddy. Whereas the three of them are having lunch, Wang slyly instructs Mrs. Li to storm out in order that she will cajole the husband into confessing. Which he does virtually instantly, even if he’s simply met this lady, thinks that she’s a buddy of his spouse, and is aware of that all the pieces he says is being recorded. It’s a reality identified to clergymen, bartenders, and murder detectives the world over: Responsible individuals actually do wish to unburden themselves.

From there, Wang convinces the husband to introduce her to his mistress, Fei Fei, and slowly works to influence them to interrupt up. It’s all so profoundly, virtually hilariously unhealthy: a cottage trade that exists to assist married {couples} not speak to one another. It’s even unnerving witnessing how excited Wang appears by her work and the schemes she will get to assemble, typically seeming like she’s one vivid concept away from donning a trench coat and a faux moustache. However Mistress Dispeller isn’t a damning expose of the trade. In truth, it exhibits little want to evaluate anybody, which is probably a part of the explanation that all the members re-consented to participating as soon as the shoot concluded and the movie’s true topic was made clear to them.

The members of the love triangle are every given equal likelihood to elucidate themselves. A few of the concepts about relationships that they espouse appear fairly questionable; for instance, Wang is satisfied that each one mistresses are basically sad girls, missing in shallowness. However they’re all compassionate towards one another and Mistress Dispeller exhibits the identical compassion towards them. Lo is nothing if not sensitively attuned to the emotions of her topics and the way they’re formed by cultural norms, and her movie is usually an investigation into what persons are actually on the lookout for and why it’s so laborious to search out, or to maintain as soon as they’ve discovered it.

Right here and there, this smart and melancholic movie inserts photographs and montages that place Mr. and Mrs. Li’s home drama in a bigger context. Drone photographs seize bustling walkways and folks going about their lives inside towering condominium buildings. We cease by briefly at speed-dating occasions and matchmaking companies that hawk their philosophies of affection. One sequence exhibits traces of bachelors and bachelorettes, with the digicam slowly panning throughout their faces to the tune of an upbeat French pop monitor. And the cumulative impact of all this materials is a profound sense of what it means to be on the lookout for “the one” in a rustic of 1.4 billion individuals.