Written and directed by Elizabeth Lo, co-written by Charlotte Munch Bengtsen, desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband’s affair.
While there have been countless documentaries on all sorts of personal topics, there’s something strikingly intimate about Mistress Dispeller. If you are someone who doesn’t enjoy films that will make you uncomfortable, this is not for you because the tension and awkwardness is overflowing. There will be times when you genuinely may want to look away, it’s hard to believe a job like Mistress Dispeller even exists, let alone that Elizabeth Lo was given access to her clients and yet it’s all there for you to see.
It definitely feeds into a desire to find solutions while having a disdain and aversion to conflict, inviting a third party in to handle the most difficult parts. That’s undoubtedly something most people will be able to relate to, and the pain that this wife is going through and the lack of appreciation that she feels is incredibly easy to sympathise with. A simple shot of her getting a haircut in the opening scene of the documentary is surprisingly powerful.
There’s a genuine intensity but at the same time, there isn’t a great deal happening as it moves fairly slowly. That gradual nature to the progression does hold it back, it can feel like it’s covering the same territory while a few key scenes arguably stand out much more. It’s a fascinating topic and there’s a lot of psychological layers to unpack but there’s not a lot of additional context and outside perspective to help with that. Lo takes a strictly observational view, rather than trying to unravel all the various emotions at work.
Mistress Dispeller is perhaps not as strong as Elizabeth Lo’s work in Stray but this has a lot more complicated ground to cover. It feels like Lo took a bigger step back with this documentary, to let it speak for itself and in some ways that works and in others it feels like it needed more context and unpacking. There’s a compelling tension and heartbreak but it feels like it needed a clearer decision on who its key subject was, whether it’s the wife or the dispeller herself. To give it a stronger direction and drive things forward with a bigger confidence, as while it’s a very interesting subject, it can feel like it’s treading the same ground.
FilmCarnage.com 
[…] Although not actors, the real subjects offer resonant emotional textures. Wang Zhenxi maneuvers with both empathy and strategic detachment, while Mrs. Li and the mistress reveal vulnerability, shame, and longing. Lo lets each voice speak without judgment, crafting a triangular portrait of modern loneliness and hope (filmadelphia.org). The intimacy is both enthralling and discomforting: “If you are someone who doesn’t enjoy films that will make you uncomfortable, this is not for you” (FilmCarnage.com). […]
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