ReviewVenice 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
4/5 stars
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.
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.
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.
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.