Warning: This article contains spoilers.
What would you do if you found out that your spouse was cheating on you? For one wife in China, she hired Miss Wang, a professional “mistress dispeller,” to end her husband’s affair. In director and producer Elizabeth Lo’s documentary, Mistress Dispeller, viewers get an intimate look into how Miss Wang integrates herself into the lives of three people and breaks up an extramarital relationship.
The middle aged wife and husband (who are not referred to by their names) are known in their town as a perfect couple, who spend their weekends playing badminton together. However, things aren’t going as smoothly as they seem on the surface. Once the wife discovers her husband is seeing another woman, she is adamant about getting rid of the mistress and enlists Miss Wang’s professional services. It’s fascinating to see how Miss Wang swiftly earns the trust of those around her and expertly guides them through the process. It’s also surprisingly peaceful, and there’s little resistance from each party when it’s time to “return things to how they once were.”
As Miss Wang is mostly working with the husband and mistress, viewers get to see more about how they feel about their situation and why they gravitate toward each other. However, we don’t get that same level of insight into the wife and husband’s relationship or the events that may have led up to these circumstances. As such, it feels like only part of their story is being told.
The film is also interspersed with random cuts to strangers’ wedding photoshoots and flyers of dating profiles in the streets of China that disrupt the flow of the story. Sometimes, interesting information is presented: “Lushan Love College research shows that only 3% of Chinese families say they are ‘very happy.’ While 24% consider themselves ‘unhappy’ families.” However, this information isn’t contextualized in a way that propels the story or tells us something meaningful about the couple’s situation.
While Miss Wang masterfully gets the job done, she is only an intermediary, and it’s beyond her purview to address the root of the couple’s problems. The husband admitted that his feelings for the mistress have not changed, despite his decision to end their relationship. He doesn’t clarify why he still came to this decision. Breaking up the affair is only the first small step to affirming the couple’s commitment to one another and to ultimately improve their relationship, but the film’s ending suggests there may be a rocky road ahead for the couple.
