For her second feature length film Mistress Dispeller, documentarian Elizabeth Lo follows a wife, her husband, his mistress, and the dispeller, the woman hired to cast out the mistress like a spell created to break the fragile bonds of marriage.
Mistress Dispeller which screened in the World Cinema program of the 2025 Jeonju International Film Festival, is truly a unique film because how many non-fictional films are there where the camera is allowed to see and record the most intimate, painful, and bewildering aspects of a marriage and “the other woman”?
In China, there’s a new service industry flourishing where women are hired by a spouse suspicious of their partner being guilty of infidelity to find out the truth of the matter, and if cheating is happening, root out the matrimonial usurper. It may sound like what a Mistress Dispeller does is the work of a private investigator, and in many ways it is. But what Wang Zenxi, aka Teacher Wang, does goes beyond surreptitiously following the cheater and taking photos to report back in clandestine meetings.
Teacher Wang does her best to understand the emotional needs and motivations of the parties involved, in this case Mrs. Li, her husband Mr. Li, and his younger mistress – but not as young as you’re thinking – FeiFei, in order to find a way to humanely break up the relationship between FeiFei and Mr. Li, without causing too much harm. Because you see, what Teacher Wang really is, is a conflict resolution expert, and watching the way she operates is fascinating and completely engrossing.
In watching Elizabeth’s previous multi award-winning short films Hotel 22, and Mother’s Day, and her debut feature Stray, it’s quite obvious that Elizabeth Lo has a knack for seeing the people and animals around her with deep curiosity and respect that seems intrinsic to her love of film.
Her film style is to select her main character, a stray dog on the streets of Istanbul named Zeytin for instance, literally take her camera down to their level, and follow every step they make for days, weeks, and even months at a time. This provides Elizabeth and the audience a viewpoint of the world they’ve thought about, but for never more than a few fleeting moments. It gives a glimpse into a whole new world that exists not in a parallel universe, but right there in our realm, next to us. Fully visible and audible.
When Mrs. Li first meets with Teacher Wang, and Mr’s Li’s own brother-in-law who himself was once the mister removed from a marriage by Teacher Wang (yes, I know…talk about drama!), she talks about her anger and frustration from being betrayed by a man she dedicated decades of her life to to build a home and family with him. She also speaks fondly at how much care he takes to prepare her mother’s favourite meal.
It’s countless moments like this where Mrs. Li, FeiFei, Mr. Li, and Teacher Wang herself all show unguarded vulnerability of their wants, fears, and hopes they have while caught up in a relationship where each person is aware of the other but feels more alone than ever. The editing by Charlotte Munch Bengtsen beautifully weaves these snippets of life together to give each person as full an identity as possible with a film where the camera feels invisible but really isn’t. No one feels as though they’re incidental to the story. Particularly FeiFei who turns out to be more than we the audience, Mrs. Li, Teacher Wang, and even Elizabeth ever expected her to be. Thinking about it, Teacher Wang and the film does a lot to dispel whatever myths and preconceptions anyone going into the film about the mistress of this story.
It takes a special skill and emotional maturity and empathy to be allowed to film a couple whose marriage could be either in the process of being permanently broken or healed. And if it does heal, evidence of the cracks formed through stress and distance will be painstakingly repaired and camouflaged with carefully placed compromises like lines of gold in Kintsugi mended china.
In my interview with Elizabeth for the film’s screening for Jeonju IFF, we spoke about her inclination to telling such intimate stories of human nature, knowing how to respect her subject’s space while leaving almost none at all between them and the camera, and how she, producer Maggie Li and their team went about making Mistress Dispeller to document the complexities of a marriage.
Mistress Dispeller premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it won two awards, and has won and been nominated for over a dozen more at multiple international film festivals.
Carolyn Hinds
Freelance Film Critic, Journalist, Podcaster & YouTuberAfrican American Film Critics Association Member, Tomatometer-Approved CriticHost & Producer Carolyn Talks…, and So Here’s What Happened! PodcastBylines at Authory.com/CarolynHinds
Twitter & Instagram: @CarrieCnh12
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