Copycat

IT is said that The Mysteries of Love, a TVBseries, is a pirate version of Galileo, a JapaneseTV series. That has aroused Japanese media'sattention and Japanese netizens' criticism. It is hard toprove in law a work is a copy of another. However, thehero and heroine of the TVB series are respectively aphysicist and a policewoman like those in Galileo. Theway they talk and the scenes in which they appear areredolent of Galileo, so much so that TVB cannotescape being called a copycat. Hong Kong TV seriesonce thrilled Chinese people in all parts of the world,and Hong Kong has been bent on developing itscreative industry. However, if Hong Kong producersonly learn from foreign series instead of setting greatstore by originality, it will be doubly hard to developHong Kong's creative industry.

Galileo has its peculiarities. For example, physicistYukawa Manabu (its hero, played by FukuyamaMasaharu) typically covers his nose with his handwhen he ponders on a case. In his laboratory there is ablackboard cluttered with incomprehensiblemathematical expressions. When they viewed the firstepisode of The Mysteries of Love, people immediatelynoticed its many similarities with the Japanese series.

Lau Ka-ho, producer of the The Mysteries of Love,said, "We are creative workers; we never copy!" Thatmay be the case in law. Furthermore, if the heroes andheroines of the two series deal with entirely differentcases though they have similar capacities and appearin similar sets, TVB's series can hardly be called acopy in law. Nevertheless, though what TVB has doneis legally defensible, it does not follow that the series isrespected.

It is absolutely wrong to say Hong Kong peopleare not creative. A few years ago, Infernal Affairs woncritical acclaim and was a huge box-office success. Itsplot of the police and a gang infiltrating into each otherwas extremely well received. Its script caught thefancy of a Hollywood filmmaker, who acquired therights to it and remade it as The Departed, which wona few Oscars. Who says Hong Kong lacks creativepeople?

It is not shameful for creative workers to open theireyes to the whole world and learn from others' works.However, it is of overriding importance to respectcopyrights. The Hollywood filmmaker acquired therights to the script of Infernal Affairs, a Hong Kong film.If Hong Kong TV stations want to learn from foreignseries, they ought to respect their creators' pains. Ifthey do so, they can conceivably command respect.

One would think that, when a TV station is called acopycat, viewers may exercise the right they have asconsumers and vote with their remotes. However,Hong Kong TV broadcasters occupy valuable free TVchannels. Only two free TV programme servicelicences has been issued. Even if businesses apply forsuch licences, their applications will not be granted inthe foreseeable future. Hong Kong TV series lackoriginality and may be full of plagiarisms mainlybecause there is little competition between the free TVprogramme service licensees. To encourage them todo creative work and to develop Hong Kong's creativeindustry, it is necessary for the government to changeits policy on TV broadcasting. Only if it opens up thefree TV channels and brings in competitors to breakthe monopoly up will people break themselves of theirviewing habits. Only then will creative Hong Kong TVseries come to the fore.

明報英語網「雙語社評」english.mingpao.com/critic.htm

重模仿輕原創創意產業事倍功半

明報社評

2010.05.31

無綫電視劇《談情說案》被指為山寨版日劇《神探伽利略》，引來日本傳媒關注及日本網民批評。要在法律上指證某一作品屬抄襲，十分困難，然而，《談》劇不論男女主角的物理學家及警察身分、場景設計、男主角說話神態等，都似曾相識，貌似《神》劇，難逃被指模仿之嫌。港產電視劇曾經風靡全球華人，近年香港也銳意發展創意產業，但若港產電視劇只懂「參考」外劇，輕視原創，創意工業勢將事倍功半。

日劇《神探伽利略》有一些招牌特色，例如男主角福山雅治飾演的物理學家湯川學，思考案情時以手指掩鼻遮面的招牌動作；又如實驗室黑板上寫滿深奧難明的數學算式。當無綫電視劇《談情說案》播出時，觀眾立即發現兩劇有不少類同之處。

無綫《談》劇的監製劉家豪強調並無抄襲，又說「我們是創作人，肯定不會抄襲！」法律上來說，這也許是對的，若兩劇只是部分主角身分與場景類似，但具體案件內容全部不同，抄襲在法律上的確難以成立。可是，即使法律上過得了關，不代表劇集會獲得尊重。

香港人絕非沒有創意，例如，幾年前電影《無間道》叫好又叫座，警察與黑幫互派臥底的橋段大獲好評，劇本更獲外國片商垂青，正式洽購版權並改編為荷李活電影《無間道風雲》，更榮獲奧斯卡金像獎。誰說香港沒有創作人才？

創作人放眼世界，參考他人的創作並非醜事，但大前提是必須尊重版權。荷李活也可以名正言順地購入港產片《無間道》的版權，香港電視劇若要「參考」外劇，能夠尊重別人的創作心血，相信也會得到別人的尊重。一家電視台被指涉嫌抄襲模仿，觀眾理應可以運用消費者力量，用手中的遙控器投票，但香港電視台佔用的是極珍貴的免費電視頻道，免費電視牌照只得兩個，即使有財團申請加入免費電視行列，成事仍是遙遙無期。沒有創意、懷疑抄襲的電視劇充斥香港，主要原因是免費電視廣播缺乏競爭。如果要在電視台激勵創意，推動本土創意產業，電視廣播政策必須改變──開放免費電視頻道，打破壟斷，打破慣性收視，引入競爭，有創意的電視劇才有出頭的機會。

Glossary

store

If you set great store by something, youconsider it to be important.

hero

the main male character in a story, film etc.

fancy

If a thing catches a person's fancy, it attracts orpleases him.