Thanks, Table122000, for bringing this Cdrama to our attention. This is the kind of Cdrama I like: short, sweet, with a happily married couple with children.
For October, my must watch drama is mini C drama A Familiar Stranger. It’s being subbed at Viki. You can also watch it with quality subs at Huace TV Official You Tube channel, although it takes some time for the subs to appear there in YT after the eps are posted because they have a deal with Viki to use their subs. It’s really interesting romantic mystery drama with a touch of magic/supernatural. In order to save her sister, a young painter is forced to “switch faces” with the Prime Minister’s daughter and marry the general in her place. Turns out the general and the painter have actually met before 3 years ago when he saved her, and she’s never forgotten him. Of course, he doesn’t know it’s her because she’s got a different face. The magic/supernatural part of the drama is the “face switching.” It’s a cool take on the “body swap” trope because only the faces are switched, everything else is the same body and soul, etc. Anyway, it is really interesting drama with nice script and the acting is good too. Drama is fast paced since it’s mini drama of only 18 episodes(approx 12-15 minutes per ep). They are combining the eps at Viki, so I think will be 9 eps total at Viki.
Yes, it’s on Viki. Eight episodes long.
I have notes for Ep 1 because I think it’s poorly written and edited. It might throw you for a loop.
1. In the beginning, the camera focused on the painter Shi Qi’s mole under her right eye. That mole is significant. When she switches faces, she retains the mole as her sole distinguishing facial feature from the real Ms. Shen Qui.
2. I don’t think the screenwriter handled the introduction of the core characters well. I get that the story began in media res, but it was confusing when Shi Qi and her friend began talking about a certain “she.” I didn’t know who the heck she was referring to.
Friend: Didn’t you say that she was lost in a brothel when she was a child?
I had to rewind to see if I missed something or if the viki subber forgot to sub a portion of their conversation.
The person they were talking about is Shi Qi’s long-lost sister. Shi Qi’s mission in life was to find her sister. They got separated when they were children and all she heard was her sister was sold to become a prostitute.
Since Shi Qi’s job was to paint the beauty of the prostitutes while they were in the prime of their lives, she had a great opportunity to seek out her sister in the brothels.
The sister apparently has a distinctive plum blossom tattooed on her shoulder.
3. [Spoiler] I’m glad that that Shi Qi didn’t get her original face in the end. The actress playing Shi Qi has a most disagreeable face. She looked perpetually sulky.
4. The female antagonist in the story, Ms. Shen Qui, wanted Shi Qi to paint her while in a sexual encounter with her lover, the Prince. She would use the painting in the future for blackmail.
Shi Qi agreed to paint it because Ms. Shen Qui offered to revealed her sister’s whereabouts if she did.
I never understood Ms. Shen Qui’s deep hatred for Shi Qi that she’d embroil her in this sordidness.
5. The two female characters, Shi Qi and Ms. Shen Qui, are set up to be diametrically opposite. Their main difference is the way they loved their man. Ms. Shen Qui posed the questions to Shi Qi.
Ms Shen Qui: Do you have someone you love? Is there someone you dream about? Have you thought about wanting to stay by his side?
Ms. Shen Qui’s love for the Prince bordered on obsession. It would cause her downfall. Without regard to her reputation or dignity, she clung to him when he outright rejected her. She valued herself so cheaply.
Meanwhile, Shi Qi’s love for the General was temperate. She was content to wait and dream of him. She painted their first encounter together and was willing to live in her memories of him. She represented purity and innocence.
6. The names aren’t really important in this drama.
The male lead is Xiao Hansheng. He’s the son of a duke. The heroine calls him General most of the time. He’s General Fuyuan.
The second male lead is Prince Ning, the third son of the King. Though he outranks General, the General didn’t hesitate to kick him out of the way.
7. I thought Ms. Shen Qui was right to slap the Prince.
Prince: What reason would you give to decline this marriage? Are you going to tell His Majesty that you, the daughter of a dignified Prime Minister, and Xiao Hansheng have a marriage arrangement, but you’re still not ashamed of having an affair with a Prince?
The double standards showed. The Prince wanted her as his sexual partner, but at the same time, he looked down on her precisely because she was his sexual partner.
8. [spoiler] I thought the ending was disastrous when Ms. Shen Qui and Prince Ning (at least, their doppelgangers) walked off together. Prince Ning never loved her.
Normally, I would have reveled in the Prince’s pursuit of Shi Qi after her face-switch with Ms. Shen Qui. His pursuit would indicate that:
a) the tables were turned and he was now in love with Ms. Shen Qui’s lookalike and obsessively chasing after her.
b) Ms. Shen Qui would have her payback after Prince Ning rejected her.
c) he’s forced to be kind and considerate of Shi Qi’s needs. He never was kind and considerate towards the real Ms. Shen Qui.
However, my theory is the Prince fell in love with Shi Qi, not because she had on Ms. Shen Qui’s face, but because of her chaste and virtuous character. The Prince liked Shi Qi because she refused his advances.
Poor Ms. Shen Qui! Even when she had plain Shi Qi’s visage, the Prince couldn’t stand her.
9. The virtuous woman is worth far more than rubies.
Shi Qi was a model wife and the General loved her for being kind to his adopted child, servants, and strangers.
They had quite a number of bedroom scenes so we know that their marriage was normal.
gifs from belmultifandommess’ tumblr
The following morning:
10. Ignore the process of the face switch. It’s not relevant to the story. The key point of this Cdrama is that Shi Qi and the General met each other before and were reunited again. The convoluted face-switching plot was simply a method to throw them together, and to test the General’s love and faith in her despite not knowing her real face nor her real name.
The rest of this Cdrama is easy to understand.
Enjoy the show.
@Packmule3,
This is great! I so agree with the points you made.
Yes, our heroine was far better off following the face switch!
And yes to the moral of the tale – it was her virtue that drew in the third prince.
I thought the General and his trusting love for Shi Qui was lovely. I liked the comic scene where he was uncool and tearing up a paper document, dancing around as the bit of paper cascaded onto him… and she caught him revealing just how happy he was her still being in his life.
I was a little frustrated by some plot inconsistencies …. our heroine has a new face – including eyes – but has not inherited the damaged eyes of Shen Qui. So the face swap thing was played with fast and loose by the writer.
Agreed too that the final redemption of Shen Qui was a bit lame. I guess that was the real Shen Qui in Shi Qui’s body and the bitter character – who I won’t name to avoid spoilers – was not in the story at that point…
There was a lot to take on board as they tied up the loose ends.
A fun short watch with occasional story telling glitches which you have highlighted already.
Thanks for this great post, @packmule3. This little mini drama is good, but it does have a few issues. I laughed when I read your #2 because I did the same thing, LOL! I was like “Wait, what? Did I miss something?” and I rewound back as well. I finally figured out the situation.
I really enjoyed the romance between the OTP and the daughter was an adorable cutie! I liked how ML had trust in FL and vice versa, and there were some nice kiss scenes. Their relationship was the heart of the show for me.
Agree with everyone that the ending was underwhelming. It was a little confusing and could have been done better. I understood what the producers were going for, but it wasn’t well executed, in my opinion. I did appreciate we saw a happy ending for our OTP.
The “face switching” element of the drama was refreshing because it was a different take on an old trope, but also a little confusing at times. It could have been handled better.
@Kate: My understanding of the “face switching” was that the new faces were more like wearing a mask. Except this would be a permanent mask that you can’t remove. Therefore, the person would keep their own eyes so it made sense to me when she did not have the damaged eyes of original Shen Qui. But then why was the mole showing? So yes, they didn’t handle the “face switching” too well.
Despite a few story/plot issues, I really enjoyed this drama so much! It had romance, humor, a little mystery, a little bit of fantasy. Nice acting, directing and solid production values. Story was fast-paced and no filler. It packs a lot into 3 hours and 45 minutes. A true “hidden gem” of a drama as it just premiered suddenly with no promotions. I came across it by chance and I’m glad I did because it is one of my favorites for this year. I encourage everyone to check it out, but make sure you watch either on Viki or Huace Official TV YouTube because the Mango subs are terrible quality.
If you like mini dramas, I will also recommend “Hold On, My Lady” which is a 4 episode historical romantic comedy. It is 4 hours total in length. You can find it with English subtitles on YouTube.
@Table122000,
Thank you for the original recommendation to watch this. I enjoyed it too despite my critiques… thank you too for the clarification on the face switch technicality (smile).
I’m interested in your other recommendation… will follow that up!
The mask analogy works well, @Table122000.
Me, I compared the procedure to a living-donor liver transplant. The mysterious disfigured man was like a doctor who performed a transplant, transferring the face or a portion of the face and grafting it onto another person.
So, the mole remained.
Probably the ears didn’t change.
The poor eyesight didn’t transfer over.
The script didn’t dwell on these things because the great sisters’ switcheroo wasn’t the focal point of the story, but the romance between the two leads. The switch was just the means to get the two lovebirds to cross paths again.
I like your explanation for “face switching” as well, @pm3. But yes, this element was not the main focus of the drama.
@Kate- You can find “Hold On, My Lady” at Mango TV Drama Youtube Channel. The quality of the English subtitles isn’t the greatest, but it is servicable. I think they used human translators for this drama, which is a good thing. Here is the link to Ep. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ_JMCjnH00
Thank you @Table122000!