Xu Yan

A FAMILIAR STRANGER (2022) is a well-made yet very short Chinese mini-drama (only 8 episodes short). I was very glad to have stumbled upon this little gem of a series.

While it is very short (especially compared to the usual 50+ episodes that Cdrama's usually consist off) thie series was very engaging and watchable. The plot was very focused and fast-paced, rather than following the usual meandering pace.

"Shi Qi (Ke Ying) is a talented and good-natured artist who, during one of her painting assignments, learns of an affair between the chancellor's cruel and exploitative daughter, Shen Qin (Kay Song), and the ruler of the realm, King Ning (Wang Ze Xuan). Shen Qin, however, is engaged to marry the powerful general Xiao Han Sheng (Ryan Cheng) but she doesn't want to go through with the marriage. Shen Qin concocts a plan to swap identities with Shi Qi, and by doing so, also swapping futures."

Overall, this Chinese mini drama was a great find! Short, thrilling and very intriguing but underneath it all, a sweet romance. I hope there will be more short series like this, if only to give more variety to the genre. Definitely worth the watch!

I was pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity of this short series. It is indeed underrated maybe because the cast is pretty unknown (at least to me). In a nutshell, FL is trapped by sorcery in a face swap and has to find a way to escape from the identity change and in the midst of this, she gets married to someone she loves. This series though low budget does not appear to be low budget because the script is very well written. There's surprising twists and turns that are high quality and not one would expect. There's surprising twists acting is good too and romance is deep and sweet. No big drama which is what I like. Highly recommend.

This was great!!!

I didn't expect much because its a mini drama and they are usually lacking on many things but this was actually good!

Have you ever wondered how a cdrama would look like if we took out everything else and we only left the romance plot and storyline??? Well, this is it!

There's no stupid misunderstandings, no unnecessary dragging of plot, no clichés and no compex political plotting here, it has all the focus on the romantic storyline.

I thought the characters were well written, simple but consistent to their backstories, and the ending had a very unpredictable and shocking twist that will make things pretty interesting! So don't expect a dumb script, it's actually smart! I even think it would make a nice longer drama! It has potential for sure.

The little girl gave a nice, sweet and fresh touch to the series as well.

You won't regret watching this and you can literally watch it in a couple of hours!