Taiwanese film director Doze Niu (鈕承澤) was found guilty yesterday of illegally taking a Chinese cinematographer to a naval base on a location scouting trip for a film project, but he is unlikely to have to serve time in prison.
The Kaohsiung District Court sentenced Niu to five months in prison, but also gave him the option of paying a NT$150,000 fine.
He could also have the sentence suspended for two years, pay a NT$600,000 penalty and complete 60 hours of community service, the court said.
If he selects either jail or the first fine, the conviction would go on his record, but if he opts for the suspended sentence, his record would be clean.
The case can be appealed.
In June last year, Niu took Chinese cinematographer Cao Yu (曹郁) to Zuoying Naval Base in Greater Kaohsiung, where they boarded an out-of-service ship to scout locations for his movie Paradise in Service (軍中樂園).
Niu was later indicted on the charge of violating the Vital Area Regulations (要塞堡壘地帶法).
Military security officers checked Cao’s identification before the film crew entered the base, but discovered later that he entered the base using Taiwanese identification, the navy said.
The Ministry of National Defense immediately ended its cooperation with Niu on the film project, and the navy turned over evidence it had collected on the incident to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
Paradise in Service, which opened nationwide in September, tells the story of soldiers and military prostitutes in Kinmen County in the 1960s, after the Aug. 23 Artillery Bombardment in 1958 between Taiwan and China.
At that time, Kinmen served as a military garrison in the nation’s defense against China.
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