EXCLUSIVE: “My family is doomed,” Mrs. Li says with despair in the trailer for the new documentary Mistress Dispeller, directed by Elizabeth Lo.
What she really means is that her marriage appears kaput – her husband has been cheating on her with a younger woman. But for Mrs. Li, who lives in China’s Henan province, there is a ray of hope: in China, “mistress dispellers” offer to go undercover to break up a straying husband’s affair.
That’s the starting point for Lo’s film, which Oscilloscope Laboratories will open in theaters on October 22 (it opened in the UK last weekend to what we understand were stellar reviews and sold-out screenings). Actress Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians, Fresh Off the Boat) has come on board Mistress Dispeller as an executive producer. Watch the exclusive trailer for the film above.
“Offering strikingly intimate access to a real, unfolding love triangle,” notes a synopsis, “Mistress Dispeller documents all sides of what is usually kept behind closed doors. As [mistress dispeller Wang Zhenxi] attempts to bring back a couple from the edge of crisis, sympathies shift between husband, wife and mistress, while emotion, pragmatism and cultural norms collide in this spellbinding look at modern love.”
(L-R) Editor Charlotte Munch Bengtsen, producer Emma D. Miller, director Elizabeth Lo, and producer Maggie Li attend the ‘Mistress Dispeller’ photocall during the Venice Film Festival.
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Lo, a Hong Kong native, comments that she and producers Emma D. Miller and Maggie Li “wanted to document an authentic ‘mistress dispelling’ case unfolding from beginning to end, in real time.” They connected with Wang Zhenxi who alerted them to the case of Mrs. Li, who had sought her services to break up her husband’s romance with Fei Fei.
“…[S]ome degree of deception was inherent to Wang’s work, and we had to figure out how to handle this ethically,” Lo explains. “The husband and mistress couldn’t know exactly what the film was about at first in order for us to capture the mistress dispelling process organically. Initially, they were approached by Wang’s business partner about sharing their stories as part of a documentary about modern love in China, and both agreed to participate. Our intention was always to transparently discuss the film’s specifics before production concluded, but we allowed Wang’s typical process to lead.”
Mistress Dispeller premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, where it won two awards: the Authors Under 40 Award and Netpac Award. It went on to win Best Documentary at the New Orleans Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival, RiverRun International Film Festival, New Hampshire Film Festival, and Sonoma International Film Festival. It won the Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary at the Denver Film Festival.
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Mistress Dispeller is directed and produced by Elizabeth Lo, who also serves as cinematographer, co-editor, and co-writer. Producers are Emma D. Miller and Maggie Li. Charlotte Munch Bengsten (All That Breathes) edited the film and co-wrote it. Ora DeKornfeld co-edited the film. Original music is by Brian McOmber. Along with Constance Wu, executive producers include Nick Shumaker, Jessica Grimshaw, David Levine, Dawn Olmstead, Jenny Raskin, Kelsey Koenig, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Rahdi Taylor, Davis Guggenheim, Steve Cohen, Paula Froehle, and Justine Suzanne Jones.
Watch the trailer for Mistress Dispeller above.
