POLICE DRAMAS

-The police officers are addressed in the following format: "Cheng Sir"

-At some point or another, the protagonist will turn in his badge and gun
OR
-His superior will take them from him because he broke protocol while serving his duty (usually doing something heroic)

-There's a joker in the department who'll somehow get in trouble by being kidnapped etc.
-The joker is often the protagonist's best friend and/or partner

-The kidnapper's hideout is either in a warehouse/shack/shophouse
-The SWAT team will pull up in a vomit-green delivery van outside the premises and enter the building
-The protagonist is the only one without a mask, or he soon takes it off when he gets inside

-Harbour scenes are plentiful

-The police team sometimes bump into gangs in public, but can't arrest them for doing nothing
-They have to hold back the protagonist from hitting out at them because he's angry

-The policemen drink at bars after work, but are almost always hiding from someone who just came into the bar
-At this point the joker usually calls out his name and pats him on the back, alerting the entire bar to his presence


FAMILY DRAMAS

-The rich family lives in a multi-storey, classical European furnished mansion
-The parents of said rich family are always found in the living room sitting on the couch
-When their kids come home they will be addressed as "Mummy" and "Daddy"

-Common English names for men are Richard, William, Robert and Henry
-Women are usually called Susan and Mary

-The family often has dim sum together

-In a backstabbing business family, the patriarch is dying
-The sons and daughters fight to take over the corporation
-The youngest (and favourite) son is now the blacksheep of the family
-The patriarch seems to be getting better and backs up the blacksheep...
-...but then he suddenly dies

-There's a Western educated Chinese man who's just come back from America or Britain (he's usually the one named Richard)
-He's usually portrayed as a doctor

-A person finds out he has cancer when he coughs up blood in a handkerchief


PERIOD DRAMAS (WUXIA)

-When one of the character's is frustrated, he will run to the sea cliffs, shout out, and in response a great burst of water will spout out from the sea

-When using powerful techniques, cheesy-bad CGI dragons will pop out of nowhere and fly all over the place while the ground will randomly explode

-The most powerful character is an old man who only appears once in the show, usually to impart the Ultimate Technique to the protaganist
-He lives in seclusion, so nobody else sees him

-The protagonist has a lot of female admirers, and ends up with each of them at some point in the story
-They all manipulate him somehow

-You can freeze people by poking their 'pressure points' with two fingers

-There is 'bad qi' and 'good qi'; 'bad qi' must be purged by someone else putting his palms on the person's back and imparting his 'good qi' into the other's system

-In the end, the protagonist breaks off affiliations with his former sect(s)

-The nuns have an old bitchy hag for a leader

...

I've been discussing such dramatic clichés with my friends for a long time; we're thinking of making a parody of them in short film(s). If you can think of anymore just post them, and if you see any mistakes in mine feel free to correct them.

Police drama
-When the protagonist sees the culprit on the street, he always points at the guy, yells "STOP!", and lets the culprit have a headstart before chasing.

-While chasing, there's always empty baskets that the culprit will push onto the ground, slowing down the police.

Comedy Dramas
-Funny things happen

Police Drama = Rush Hour 3.

Well, I'm not a fan for wuxia dramas, but I still have to say this. These are part a parcel of wuxia dramas, not cliches. They have been, and will always be like that because that was how the story was written in the first place.