The hotel room as a place where everyone is a stranger. A place that is yours for just a moment. A temporarily intimate space entered by a maid in order to clean it while, if possible, not leaving a trace of her visit. Each episode of Stranger is set in such a place, and each is captured in one long take. Weaving together a series of episodic stories – some humorous and absurd, some poignant and mysterious – that all unfold within a seemingly confined space, Stranger explores the idea of home while being away from it, and sheds light on the distinctive yet universal experiences of isolation and loneliness.
In a small county in Shandong Province in 2008, single mother Wei lives alone with her daughter Miao. A mother's desperate efforts to get her daughter into China's top universities through "college entrance exam immigration" change both of their destinies. However, this has put them into an even more precarious situation than when they started.
On an ordinary day in a city in northern China, people struggle with their lives as usual. A middle-aged man finds his job has been given to a young person. The man's wife wants a new life. Some high school students are numbly arranged in the schoolyard. And a young teacher is trying to change the traditional education system. The owner of a barbershop forces the barbers to go into the streets to grab customers. Similarly, a barbecue shop owner is transforming his shop into a nightclub. When night falls, people finish work and come to the new nightclub. They lose themselves in the gorgeous illusion.
After the wife learns her husband's accidental death, she has an intense conflict with her own mother, in-laws, and public opinion about whether the posthumous child less than ten weeks old should be born.
A dark comedy follows a Siberian tiger, a dog, a forklift driver, a middle school teacher, a poet, a debt collector and a pregnant woman. Beneath the absurdities of an owner trying to avenge his dog and his pregnant wife is a story about reality.
18-year-old Shengnan is invited to a mysterious party by her cousin. Upon arrival, Shengnan finds herself surrounded by greasy middle-aged men, with the exception of Jianguo, who is different. Shengnan and Jianguo decide to bail on the party, embarking on a night of adventures in the adult world.
Schoolboy Cui Lin, the president of the university's voice club, was captured by the Cosmic Correctional Facility for being overly narcissistic, arrogant and toxic, causing a lot of negative energy to those around him. He was sentenced to turn into an umbrella for the rest of his life to serve humanity. To escape the tragic fate of being turned into an umbrella, Trey Rin sets off to another land on another planet and sets out to find the dragon's soul left behind there. He meets the powerful martial artist Jin Haitang, who is able to recharge his batteries, and the crown prince, who is forced to be in trouble in the palace. In order to break the master's plot, they set up a trap to lure him into a trap, but unexpectedly the master releases negative energy that is strong enough to destroy the planet.
Under a tin-gray sky, in a hollowed out corner of northern China, a stranger arrives in town bearing magical soap—but smelling it will cost you. Nearby, a pair of unenthused cops try cracking a seemingly simple case. Or not. And you can forget religious solace; the only monk around is not what he seems.