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Mistress Dispeller

Sponsored Project

  • Elizabeth Lo, Director
  • Emma D. Miller, Producer
  • Elizabeth Lo, Producer
  • Maggie Li, Producer
A Chinese woman with dark hair and a sequined blue jacket with a fur collar sits at a white marble table and speaks into her cell phone. Another cell phone rests on the table by her elbow. There is a brown curtain and wooden bookshelf behind her.

About the Project

In China, a new industry has emerged devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Wang Zhenxi is part of this growing profession, a “mistress dispeller” who is hired to maintain the bonds of marriage — and break up affairs — by any means necessary. Offering strikingly intimate access to private dramas usually hidden behind closed doors, Mistress Dispeller follows a real, unfolding case of infidelity as Teacher Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis. Their story shifts our sympathies between husband, wife, and mistress to explore the ways emotion, pragmatism, and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China.