MISTRESS DISPELLER Trailer: Award-Winning Documentary Observes a Business That Breaks Up Affairs

Having made a fall festival splash last year at Venice, TIFF, and DOC NYC, documentarian Elizabeth Lo’s Mistress Dispeller is finally headed for a stateside release. Set in modern-day China, the documentary observes a unique industry where professionals go undercover to break up extramarital affairs. It follows the titular “dispeller,” who is hired by a woman to secretly end her husband’s affair and save their marriage. It also observes the love triangle from the perspectives of the wife, the husband, and the mistress. With Constance Wu on board as an executive producer, Oscilloscope Laboratories has now set it for an awards-qualifying release on October 22.

I wrote in my review from TIFF, “There is a Rashomon-like approach the director uses here – defying certain judgments on subjects and events by exploring how everyone sees the situation from their own eyes. Her fly-on-the-wall approach gives everyone involved the space to express themselves in the moment, not interfering for dramatic effect. Even the fourth wall is broken at one point when Wang stresses to the production team the sensitivity of what they are about to film. Lo beautifully captures the many facets of love and loneliness through her empathetic lens. We are left to ponder our preconceptions regarding fidelity and devotion. [Mistress Dispeller] is a rare, unbiased look at modern love in another society that’s a must-see for any couple or romantic.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

In China, a new industry has emerged devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Wang Zhenxi is part of this growing profession, a “mistress dispeller” who is hired to maintain the bonds of marriage — and break up affairs — by any means necessary. Offering strikingly intimate access to private dramas usually hidden behind closed doors, Mistress Dispeller follows a real, unfolding case of infidelity as Teacher Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis. Their story shifts our sympathies between husband, wife, and mistress to explore the ways emotion, pragmatism, and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China.

See the U.S. trailer and poster below.

Liked it? Take a second to support Hammer to Nail on Patreon!