Intertextuality in cliched Asian Dramas and "chick flicks" - How to Read Literature Like a Professor

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster urged us readers to think of intertextuality in terms of movie westerns. However, as a teenager, I couldn't really relate to this genre (I do love Clint Eastwood though). Then I had a brilliant idea: being a sucker for the romantic and the melodramatic, what if I applied this whole intertextuality idea to a familiar realm -- Asian drama and romance movies? Success.

So one day this past summer, I took the liberty of digging through my movie archives and listing at the numerous Asian dramas and American "chick flicks" I've watched. I've found numerous similarities between Asian and American movies alike, but here are three of the most common and really obvious romantic/dramatic movie archetypes I've noticed:

1. Girl/guy gets amnesia, but nevertheless the heart prevails and they fall in love all over again and all that jazz (or the amnesiac regains his/her memory)

American movies: The Promise (1971 movie), The Notebook
Asian dramas: Stairway to Heaven, Endless Love 2: Winter Sonata, Meteor Garden II, Save the Last Dance for Me

* Creepy similarities: The amnesia in all these dramas are caused by a car accident, with the exception of The Notebook

2. Girl and guy love each other to bits, but girl/guy (mostly the girl) dies from some tragedy

American movies: A Walk to Remember, Atonement
Asian dramas: Endless Love 1: Autumn in My Heart, Windstruck

* Creepy similarities: The girls from both A Walk to Remember and Endless Love 1 both die from leukemia.

3. Guy falls in love with the less attractive/less desirable heroine instead of the other, more attractive (usually self-absorbed and condescending) girl he used to love

American movies: Ugly Betty, Bridget Jones's Diary
Asian dramas: My Name is Kim Sam Soon

* Creepy similarities: The protagonists in both Kim Sam Soon and Bridget Jones's Diary are both in their thirties.

4. Guy and girl fake their relationship and eventually fall in love

American movies: The Proposal

Asian dramas: Lovers in Paris, Full House

* Creepy similarities: They all fake marriage because of some ulterior motive. Moreover, the dynamics between these couples are usually very antagonistic at first, then slowly it melts into love.

It's funny how intertextuality rings true even between movies from completely different cultures. Moreover, even though the stories in much of these American and Asian romance/dramas are pretty much the same, I find that I never get tired of them! Much more, when one needs a moment of catharsis, fascinatingly, these movies never fail to serve their purpose. I suppose we owe Foster and his book for the explanation, that these cliches "[set] off vibrations deep in our collective consciousness, calling to us, alarming us, inspiring us to dream or nightmare, making us want to hear it again. And again and again and again."