A Familiar Stranger

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 when Shi Qi accidentally witnesses deadly and nefarious goings-on at the court, she finds herself drawn into trouble. Shen Qin devises a way to enlist a magician to swap her face with that of Shi Qi – so that she and the painter can “switch” identities. As such, Shi Qi ends up “engaged” to Xiao Han Sheng, while Shen Qin takes up the painter’s identity. But the “real” Shi Qi has already crossed paths with Xiao Han Sheng many years ago – even though he has no idea who she truly “is” now. King Ning, meanwhile, is still keen to continue his relationship with the woman he believes to be Shen Qin. As the two women begin to live each others’ lives, though, both King Ning and Xiao Han Sheng begin to suspect that the women they are with have undergone enormous personality changes. Could something be amiss, they ask themselves. Will the truth come out? And will Shi Qi and Shen Qin ever regain their “true” faces? “A Familiar Stranger” is a 2022 Chinese drama series that was directed by Zeng Qing Jie.