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A well manicured woman in a sequin jacket holds her cell phone out in front of her, contemplating.

Mistress Dispeller

  Elizabeth Lo

  China, United States     94 minutes

Synopsis

Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a “mistress dispeller” — a growing profession in China’s larger cities — to break up her husband’s affair. The expert, Wang Zhenxi, or “Teacher Wang”, conspires with the woman and her adult children to insinuate herself into their family. She surreptitiously becomes a close confidante of the cheating spouse and his mistress, all part of her intricate master plan to restore the relationship between husband and wife.

With Mistress Dispeller, award-winning filmmaker Elizabeth Lo (Stray) has crafted an enormously fascinating and multi-faceted psychological portrait. From its carefully observed perspective, the film captures both the love triangle’s most private and intimate moments as well as Wang’s skill in slowly drawing out the characters and subtly manipulating their feelings. Mixing extreme closeups with images of China’s urban landscapes, Mistress Dispeller is an absorbing docudrama that lifts the curtain on a rarely seen segment of Chinese bourgeois society.

 Chinese with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Screening

Thu, Oct 17 @ 5:15pm CDT

at AMC NEWCITY 14, screen 01

Scheduled to Attend:
Director Elizabeth Lo

Screening

Fri, Oct 18 @ 1:00pm CDT

at AMC NEWCITY 14, screen 01

Media

Film Credits

  •   Emma D. Miller, Maggie Li
  •   Elizabeth Lo, Charlotte Munch Bengtsen
  •   Charlotte Munch Bengtsen, Elizabeth Lo
  •   Elizabeth Lo
  •   Brian McOmber
  •   Nick Shumaker, Jessica Grimshaw, David Levine, Dawn Olmstead, Jenny Raskin, Kelsey Koenig, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Rahdi Taylor, Davis Guenheim, Steve Cohen, Paula Froehle

Sponsors

Documentary Program Partner

Logo: WTTW (2019)

Documentary Program Patron

Cynthia Stone Raskin