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Can a relationship ever recover from infidelity? Elizabeth Lo’s mainly observational documentary follows one of China’s many “mistress dispellers”, which is to say an intermediary who attempts to halt affairs and repair families. While it’s tempting to view their existence as morally censorious, Teacher Wang’s approach at least leans towards empathy and as she says is geared towards encouraging the unfaithful partners to want to return to their spouse of their own volition rather than punishing them for what others may consider immoral behaviour or forcing them to do the “right” thing by staying in a marriage that may not be working.
In fact, she has a lot of empathy for the mistress at one point suggesting that she is most likely the person suffering the most in this situation because she is trapped in an incomplete, unfulfilling relationship which has no real possibility of coming to fruition. The conclusion she comes to about Mr Li’s mistress Feifei is that she is most likely just lonely while she herself later reflects that she gravitates towards relationships with unavailable men because of low self-esteem, feeling as if she does not really deserve a full relationship or all of someone’s love.
The documentary in part links this sense of inadequacy to China’s contemporary marriage mores in which it is very much a buyer’s market and women are considered to have passed marriageable age in their mid-20s. 30-something Feifei feels she has little chance of striking a striking a connection with an eligible bachelor and is relegated to the realms of mistresses while brief flashes to dating agencies and parks where people place ads for potential matches suggest that divorcees and widowers with children maybe the only realistic options for a woman in her position. A lady answering the phone in a matchmaking agency remarks that she’s glad her client is based in Beijing because she’s simply too tall to find a willing match in the local area.
That aside, it might be difficult to see what Feifei sees in Mr Li, a typical middle-aged gentleman she describes as kind and affable. It doesn’t seem that money is a factor in their relationship, nor is she a kind of status symbol for Li who says that being with her is like being in the sun while it’s clear he’s become bored with the mundanity of domestic life. Though materially comfortable, the long married couple appear to have grown apart despite Mrs Li’s conviction that their relationship had previously been close and harmonious to the extent that they were the envy of their friends.
Of course, from her position there is a sense of humiliation and betrayal along with anxiety surrounding her living circumstances and husband’s future plans. She enlists Wang on her younger brother’s recommendation and submits herself to her process which involves introducing her as a “friend” and engineering a series of scenes which allow Teacher Wang to probe Mr Li to figure out his feelings surrounding his affair. In some ways, the process of the documentary is similar. Lo states that Mr Li and Feifei were brought on board believing they were taking part in a documentary about modern love but repeatedly reconfirmed their consent as the film evolved.
Feifei herself begins to wonder if something’s afoot, feeling as if Teacher Wang, whom she believes to be Mr Li’s cousin, is somehow guiding them but also grateful that she seems to be helping her. We can sense the potential influence of the documentary in Teacher Wang’s anxiety on bringing the wife and the mistress together, explaining that people don’t generally agree to this and it’s not part of her usual process. Nevertheless, it rejects the potential sensationalism of the situation for a more rational discussion from each of the women’s perspectives bringing a sense of closure to both. This is the only real time we become aware of the film crew behind the camera which otherwise sits statically with incredible access to the discussions between all parties lending their honesty an uncanny quality. Even so, with the situation resolved in the best possible way, it seems that no one is really happy even as the Lis attempt to rebuild their relationship and Feifei attempts to move on. Lo hints at the pressures of the contemporary society from outdated patriarchal social codes, a lack of respect for women in general, lingering legacies of the One Child Policy, and the looming authoritarianism of the state, but finally comes down to three lonely people desperately seeking fulfilment but united only in their aloneness.
Mistress Dispeller had its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
Original trailer (English subtitles)
Windows on Worlds 