10 Filipino Rom-Com Clichés We All Love to Hate

5. Makeover Montage

The female lead with unruly and frizzy hair, large nerd glasses, thick and un-plucked eyebrows, pimples, and braces is forcibly seated on a salon chair in front of a well-lit mirror, where she is first examined (and low-key scrutinized) by the head of the salon. The Torture Session Montage Makeover Montage then begins as the audience catch sights of flying straighteners and curling wands, hair mousse and hair-spray, combs and brushes, tweezers, razors, foundations and concealers, eye-shadow palettes, lipsticks, nail polish, blush palettes, and other beauty-associated materials.

This ugly duckling to beautiful swan transformation is often criticized for its usually paired hypocritical message revealed in the end to “be yourself,” because obviously, the glamorized version of the female lead has been the one and authentic version of the female lead all along!

4. Amnesia

All is well in the world of romance until an over-speeding vehicle hits one of the lead characters, resulting in the character’s memory loss, causing the character to forget about his or her partner. Out of all the gasgas Filipino rom-com tropes, I feel as if this is the most gasgas.

3. Falling in Love During the Bet

The arrogant male lead confidently tells his equally arrogant male friends about his disgusting playboy endeavors, and his friends, doubting the lead’s “capabilities,” make him a bet about having to have a girl fall in love with him within a span of a month. The lead agrees, and his friends choose for him to toy with the most innocent-looking girl in the room with the only rule being not to fall in love with her. He inevitably catches genuine feelings for her, and she does as well; but their sacred little paradise is troubled when she discovers that it was all for a bet. (Expect variations of the infamous “I trusted you” line!)

Surprisingly, the two turn out fine in the end, despite the relationship being founded on trickery! Which I guess, as was in “Pretend to Be My Partner,” is completely normal and not-at-all sociopathic!

2. Declaration of Love Under the Rain

When two characters in a Filipino rom-com are found in the middle of an empty street as the night-sky suddenly begins to pour in torrents upon them, you know what is about to happen: an emotional profession of love (or if the film is rated a bit higher–a kissing scene a la The Notebook). Mind not the issue of staying under the rain to be a seemingly hypothermia-inducing experience! There is nothing more romantic than to be freezing in your wet clothes, speaking while raindrops are probably constantly entering your mouth, and getting a cold the next morning!

1. The Last Minute Airport Sprint

After a huge dramatic confrontation that occurs between the two romantic leads causing them not to speak with one another for a relatively long period of time, the lead star, in realization of his or her genuine affection towards the other character, goes to the other character’s house to apologize, only to be met with the information that the other character (though there has been absolutely no mention of this plan before) has packed his or her bags and is on his or her way to the airport to stay in another country permanently.

The lead then rushes to the airport, defying all the Philippine traffic and the airport security, to confess his or her undying love for the other character, only to be met with the sight of an airplane, which the lead just assumes the other character is on, taking off. The lead then goes to an emotional outburst where he or she reveals the emotions going haywire under a once hopeful persona, but surprise! That wasn’t the other character’s flight all along! And another surprise! The other character was within earshot and heard the confession all along!

Have you encountered any of these Filipino rom-com clichés? What other Filipino rom-com clichés do you know? Let us know in the comments section!