电影道具被指为伪钞，港片两工作人员获刑
伪钞被藏了起来。警方找出了藏匿处。正义得到了伸张。
It may sound like a film noir plot, but the fake bills had been used as props in an award-winning crime thriller filmed in Hong Kong. And the two suspects — who received suspended four-month sentences on Thursday — were not hardened criminal counterfeiters but members of a film production crew.
这可能听起来像是一部黑色电影的剧情，但这些伪钞是被用作香港一部犯罪惊悚片的道具，该电影曾获大奖。而且两名嫌犯——他们在周四被判入狱四个月，但获缓刑——也并非造假惯犯，而是电影剧组的工作人员。
The question, local cinephiles say, is why the police even bothered to seek charges.
当地影迷表示，问题在于，警方为何要多事。
They say the case illustrates how onerous rules are needlessly hampering a local industry whose golden age of Bruce Lee kung fu films and Wong Kar-wai dramas seems long past, and which is now struggling to compete against rising competition from studios in South Korea and mainland China.
他们说，这一案例说明了繁琐的规则是如何不必要地阻碍了当地电影产业的发展。该产业的黄金时代曾产出李小龙的功夫电影和王家卫的剧情片，那似乎是很久以前的事情了，而它眼下正艰难地与来自韩国和中国大陆的电影公司日益激烈的竞争相抗衡。
“It’s hypocritical,” Kevin Ma, the founder of Asia in Cinema, a news site for the regional industry, said of the convictions. Even as Hong Kong officials talk of supporting local filmmakers, he said, “they have these really weird, arcane laws that prevent the industry from putting in serious production values.”
“虚伪，”地区性电影业新闻网站Asia in Cinema创办人马乐民(Kevin Ma)如此评价两人的定罪。他说，尽管香港官员谈到支持本地电影创作，但“他们有一些非常奇怪、晦涩难解的法律，令电影产业难以投入大的制作价值。”
In a statement, the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers called the sentence “unprecedented in the history of film industries around the world.” And the Hong Kong Film Arts Association said it was concerned because local laws governing the industry were hopelessly outdated and full of “gray areas that make it exceedingly easy for people in the industry to become accidentally entrapped.”
香港电影工作者总会在一份声明中称，该宣判“在全球电影业界史无前例”。香港电影美术学会担忧当地有关该行业的法律极为过时，“处处灰色地带，令从业人员极为容易陷入犯法陷阱。”
The two men convicted on Thursday, Cheung Wai-chuen and Law Yun-lam, are veterans of Hong Kong’s film industry who were charged in late 2015 with having more than 230,000 counterfeit notes in Hong Kong dollars and other currencies, according to local news reports. The police had found the bills in a vehicle and an office associated with the production crew. The fake currency lacked the proper permits for storage and transportation, authorizations that the film’s producers were responsible for securing.
根据当地新闻报道，周二被定罪的两名男子张伟全和罗润霖是香港电影业的资深人士，他们在2015年末被控拥有超过23万元的港币和其他货币的伪钞。警方在一辆车和一个与该剧组有关的办公室里找到了这些假钞。它们没有适当的储存和运输许可证，这些授权应由电影制片人负责获取。
The money was used on the set of “Trivisa,” a thriller about three criminals in the lead-up to the former British colony’s 1997 handover to China. “Trivisa” won five awards at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Awards, including best film, but it was later banned on the Chinese mainland — perhaps, observers said, because of scenes that show the criminals bribing Chinese officials.
这笔钱被用于电影《树大招风》中，片中故事发生在香港这个前英殖民地于1997年移交给中国之前，是关于三名罪犯的惊悚片。《树大招风》在2017年香港电影金像奖上获得包括最佳影片奖在内的五项大奖，但后来在中国大陆被禁——观察人士说，或许是因为在几场戏里，罪犯对中国官员进行了贿赂。
“You could just go to it as a crime movie, but I’m sure it echoes what a lot of people feel about the handover and how the new boss is China, and not the U.K.,” said Ross Chen, founder of the website Love HK Film and a member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.
“你可以把它当作犯罪电影来看，但我确信它反映了很多人对交接的看法，以及新老板怎样变成了中国，不再是英国，”Love HK Film网站创始人、香港电影评论学会成员陈竹蓁说。
Hong Kong’s Film Services Office regulates and promotes the city’s film industry. In a statement Friday, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, which oversees the film services office, said that it received occasional enquiries on the use of prop money, and that it tried to “provide assistance” and “help resolve any problems.”
香港电影服务统筹科负责监管和宣传香港电影业。负责管理该统筹科的商务及经济发展局在周五发表声明称，它不时收到有关对该道具纸币使用情况的调查，并试图“提供协助”并“帮助解决任何问题”。
For many in the local film industry, the case is emblematic of how Hong Kong, a semiautonomous city of about seven million, is struggling to maintain its cultural influence at a time when Beijing’s soft power is increasingly dominant.
当地电影业的许多人认为，这个案例足以证明，在北京的软实力日益占据统治地位之时，作为一个拥有700万人口的半自治城市，香港正在努力维持其文化影响力。
The film industry is perhaps best known for 1970s-era kung fu movies starring Bruce Lee and acclaimed ’90s-era dramas by the director Wong Kar-wai. But after reaching box-office highs in 1992, revenue plummeted about 80 percent over the next 15 years, to around $28 million in 2007, according to government figures. A rebound in 2015 reached about 30 percent of the 1992 peak.
香港电影业可能以1970年代李小龙主演的功夫电影和1990年代王家卫备受赞誉的故事片而闻名。但根据政府数据，在1992年达到最高点后，接下来的15年间，香港电影票房收入下降了80%左右，到2007年约为2800万美元。2015年出现反弹，达到1992年峰值的30%。
Mr. Chen, of the film critics society, said that the idea that the counterfeiting charges were motivated by mainland politics seemed far-fetched to him, but he thought the film had plenty of critics in the mainland, especially because of its portrayals of some Chinese officials as corrupt.
香港电影评论学会的陈竹蓁表示，他认为假币指控受到大陆政治推动的想法似乎有些牵强，但他认为这部电影在大陆受到了很多批评，特别是因为它把一些中国官员塑造成贪污腐败的形象。
He added that he did not consider the sentences on Thursday to be “punishment” for the film’s politically sensitive elements, though he did find them severe. “At worst, you’d think the prop makers should just get a warning, if not a small fine,” he said.
他补充说，他并不认为周四的判决是对电影政治敏感因素的“惩罚”，尽管他确实认为这些判决非常严厉。“最坏的情况，你会认为这些道具制造者也就是遭到警告，或者是处以小额罚款，”他说。
On Thursday, one of the defendants questioned the timing of the sentences.
周四，其中一名被告质疑判决的时机。
“You’ve watched movies for years, and those of you who are enforcing the law have seen the issue but you didn’t say anything,” Mr. Cheung said to reporters outside the courthouse. “Why are you only speaking up now?”
“你们看了那么多年电影，你们执法的都一直看到这件事，但是你们不去讲。”张伟全在法院外对记者说。“现在才来讲，对吗?”
Film industries around the world have tight rules governing the creation and use of fake currency in movies, and this is not the first legal case to arise from trying to use fake money that looks as realistic as possible. Anyone who prints fake money in Hong Kong must apply for permission. They must also make bills with “easily identifiable elements” to show that they are not real, Hong Kong’s acting secretary for financial services and the treasury, Joseph Chan, said in January.
世界各地的电影行业在制作和使用影片中的假币方面都有严格规定，这不是试图使用尽量逼真的假币引发的第一起案例。任何在香港印制假钞的人必须申请许可。香港署理财经事务及库务局局长陈浩濂在1月份表示，还必须用“容易识辨的元素”来表明这些纸币不是真的。
Cheung Kit-yee, the judge in the “Trivisa” counterfeiting case, said that while the bills on the set were marked with the word “props,” it was clear only upon careful inspection, local news outlets reported. She said there was a risk that the bills could be used illegally.
当地媒体报道，《树大招风》假冒案件的法官张洁宜表示，虽然现场发现的钞票上标有“道具”字样，但只有经过仔细检查才能清楚看到。她说，这批假钞有遭到非法使用的风险。
But Mr. Ma, the film journalist, said that the case was just the latest example of local filmmakers cutting corners because they were unable to navigate the local bureaucracy. He said a few had even filmed car chases on local roads after failing to secure official permission to have them closed.
但是电影记者马先生表示，这件事仅仅是当地电影人无法顺利获得当地官僚机构许可，就试图走捷径绕过去的最新例子。他说，有些人无法获得官方的封路许可，甚至在当地道路上拍摄追车镜头。
There is more than a hint of irony in the case, Mr. Ma said. One of the best-known moments in Hong Kong cinema is a scene in the 1986 film “A Better Tomorrow,” where the gangster Brother Mark, played by Chow Yun-fat, lights his cigarette with a counterfeit $100 bill.
马先生说，这件事很有讽刺意味。1986年的电影《英雄本色》中，周润发扮演的流氓小马哥用假的100美元钞票点燃手中的香烟，那是香港电影中最著名的时刻之一。
