Chinese doc takes an unusual look at an extramarital affair

POSTER ART FROM ‘Mistress Dispeller’ shows “Fei Fei” the mistress on the far right. Mrs. Li is at left and the “mistress dispeller,” Teacher Wang, is at center.  

Divorce rates or philandering husbands always seem to make for good gossip. 

A new film called “Mistress Dispeller,” coming out of China, looks at this topic from the viewpoint of the wife, the hubby and the side chick. 

Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a “mistress dispeller” — a growing profession in China’s larger cities — to break up her husband’s affair. The expert, Wang Zhenxi, or “Teacher Wang,” conspires with the woman and her adult children to insinuate herself into their family. She surreptitiously becomes a close confidante of the cheating spouse and his mistress, all part of her intricate master plan to restore the relationship between husband and wife.

“Mistress Dispeller” follows a real, unfolding case of indelity as Teacher Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis. Her story shows sympathies between husband, Mr. Li, his wife Mrs. Li and mistress Fei Fei to explore the ways emotion, pragmatism and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China.

I watched this film over the weekend and it was interesting in that there was a strategic plan that brought all three parties together—with the help of a counselor. 

The three parties even come together for dinner under the watchful eye of the “Dispeller,” as she tries to make the mistress see that she’s going downhill in her quest to find love. 

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MR. AND MRS. Li ponder their fragile relationship in a still from ‘Mistress Dispeller.’

The director Elizabeth Lo said of the film: “I have loved love stories for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Hong Kong, the romance section of our local movie rental store was always the first place I’d look. I came of age watching movies like ‘A Room with A View,’ ‘Notting Hill,’ ‘Bend it Like Beckham,’ ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Lost in Translation’ on repeat. Like many around the world, these idealized visions of romance shaped mine.

“Yet my experience of love within my own family was markedly different from what I saw represented in these movies. In my home, love was bound up with sacrifice, duty and what’s left unsaid. As a director, I wanted to see this specific kind of love through my own camera, and use a crisis of infidelity as my entryway to discover how emotion is expressed and experienced in my culture.

The film is set within the world of mistress dispelling, a new “love industry” specialized in ending affairs between married spouses and their extramarital lovers that has only emerged within the last decade in China (a response to rising rates of adultery that have ballooned alongside its economy). 

For a fee that can start at tens of thousands of dollars, a mistress dispeller is typically hired for two to three months by a wife to infiltrate a mistress’ life — to gain the mistress’ confidence under a false identity and influence her to end the affair of her own accord. There are no exact figures for how many operate in China, but ads for hundreds of mistress dispelling companies exist online.”

There’s not much crying, dishes breaking against the wall or mad dashed car scenes with the wife trying to run over the husband. What is laid before us is a documentary using real subjects, with real emotions and family structure on the line. 

“Teacher Wang taught me a lot. About love, and other things,” said the wife Mrs. Li. “She said, look, you are going through this, this difficulty, and we should film it, so more women, more people, can face their families and learn how to handle a situation like this…I want more people to know that love doesn’t come easy, especially for people at our age. Don’t give up so easily.”

If this is a trend overseas that works to repair a failing marriage, the documentary posits that it does, and that’s fantastic. 

Just seems odd to me. 

The director’s 2020 film “Stray” is currently streaming on Prime Video. 

“Mistress Dispeller” will screen on Sunday, October 27, at  7:30 p.m. @ AMC NEWCITY 14 (1500 N. Clybourn Ave.) The film was Winner of the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary.

Trailer: https://tinyurl.com/yck5xare

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Elaine Hegwood Bowen, M.S.J., is the Entertainment Editor for the Chicago Crusader. She is a National Newspaper Publishers Association ‘Entertainment Writing’ award winner, contributor to “Rust Belt Chicago” and the author of “Old School Adventures from Englewood: South Side of Chicago.” For info, Old School Adventures from Englewood—South Side of Chicago (lulu.com)  (https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/englewoodelaine/) or email: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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