By chance, yesterday (June 29), I went to see a movie "Customs Front".
Interestingly, on this day 18 years ago, I officially resigned from the customs and left Manchuria by plane, passing through Beijing and Hangzhou to Guangzhou. When I was passing through Hangzhou, I met my best friend in the customs system.
Of course, from entering the national examination to resigning, my customs career was only 3 years. However, in the past three years, I have witnessed and participated in a number of important moments at the border. I am full of gratitude and gratitude for those years, and I miss those former colleagues who are still rooted in the borders of the motherland and gatekeepers for the country.
Is customs work really that dangerous?
Back to the Customs Front. First of all, although the film is very fast, it still portrays some of the functions of the (Hong Kong) Customs. Naturally, both Hong Kong and the customs in the mainland will not always face the dangers depicted in the movie.
In the movie, Hong Kong Customs investigated transnational arms smuggling syndicates, in addition to the support of the Hong Kong Police Flying Tigers in the second half of the process, mainly relying on their own strength, but everyone is also very clear that if there is really a situation where transnational criminal groups are involved in Hong Kong to snatch criminal evidence and wantonly attack the Customs disciplined forces, there will not be a situation where the Customs is fighting alone. In Hong Kong, there is not only the support of the police force, but also the Hong Kong Garrison. In the hinterland, the public security, armed police, and armed forces have also formed a protective coordination mechanism for customs supervision and anti-smuggling investigation.
Customs has always been the most popular department in the national examination, and the job is very attractive. If you are a careful audience, you can actually draw a basic observation from this movie and the previous film and television dramas involving customs work, that is, customs work is actually far from being as glamorous as many people imagine.
"Customs Front" artistically shows the risks faced by customs supervision and smuggling, but in fact, more often than not, customs work, especially the front-line work engaged in by most customs officers, is day after day, enduring huge boring and mechanical repetitive inspections, ship inspections, vehicle inspections, quarantine and other business work, the work scene is of course outdoors, whether it is at sea, wharf or land border ports, as well as customs supervision areas that are not along the border and coast.
Every moment needs to be cheered, but by no means as frequent as the movie suggests, but with great frequency, or big problems – in the vast majority of cases, customs work uncovers very small problems, such as irregularities in the filling of documents, incorrect classifications, and small amounts of concealment. There will be major problems hidden, but it is not clear which business it is. In this case, the biggest challenge for customs officers is how to overcome burnout and not let go of any potentially suspicious factors.
It is precisely for this reason that although the risk of encountering major violent crimes depicted in the movie is not so high, it must exist, and the tedious daily work makes it impossible for customs officers and anti-smuggling police to effectively prevent the attacks of smuggling groups, organizations, and individuals every time, and there will be sacrifices.
"Of course it's comfortable for you to sit in the air-conditioned room all day long, but it's very hard for us to work outside."
Let's look at the story of the movie "Customs Front". This movie portrays three high-level officials of Hong Kong Customs, one is the commissioner, and two directors (played by Lam Ka-yan and Ng Chun-yu respectively, who are responsible for intelligence and port field operations). The Commissioner of Customs and Excise in the movie, who is about to retire, of course hopes to make a smooth transition, so in the case of looting of customs evidence and the death or injury of customs officers, the first thing that comes to mind is whether it can be handed over to the police to avoid greater casualties.
And Wu Zhenyu played the director Guo Ziqiang, in the movie, he said that he cares about the face of Hong Kong Customs and other departments relative to the police force, and does not want to hand over the business, and is very wary of being divided by colleagues in the intelligence department. In the movie, Guo Ziqiang mainly sat in the office to command, and only after the accident did he go to the scene to reprimand his subordinates with a straight face, which interestingly echoed the lines that the actor Wu Zhenyu said as Liangkun in "Crazy Boy" more than 20 years ago: "Of course, it is comfortable for you to sit in an air-conditioned room every day and control it remotely, we work very hard outside." ”
The most ironic thing is that Lin Jiaxin played another director, although he is engaged in intelligence, female, but he personally led the team to the scene with a gun three times and twice to direct the arrest.
There is no doubt that although the character of Guo Ziqiang is not a villain, it is by no means likable. Many people watching this movie are likely to suspect that Guo Ziqiang will be the "inner ghost" at first, but this is not the case.
This is also an issue that we need to explore. That is, whether it is applying for customs or other positions with editors, young people actually have a high probability of meeting leaders like Guo Ziqiang. It can even be said that in the workplace, the proportion of such people is not low.
The biggest characteristic or slot of such a leader is that he is greedy for merit. But such people are likely to be very loyal to their work, mission, and responsibilities, in a sense, they cannot be on the top by virtue of nepotism (otherwise they would not have such low emotional intelligence), and they are super capable of working, but they are stubborn and often override others with their personal will. Such a person's greatest wish is to be in a higher position, but there is no problem with clean government, and there is no other problem, so as a subordinate, you can be physically and mentally exhausted when you work under such a leader, and you can't find a basis to report the other party.
What's more, one Guo Ziqiang, you can't afford to hide, but there are many Guo Ziqiang, and there is mutual understanding and empathy between Guo Ziqiang and Guo Ziqiang, if you offend one, it is not easy to end up well under others.
In this movie, Jacky Cheung and Nicholas Tse each played roles were promoted to supervisor-level positions in the on-site business of the customs through long-term performance of duties (applied to the mainland, probably at the section level?). This is actually the so-called braided work, which can generally be promoted to the ceiling of the position.
I can't help but say that Jacky Cheung's acting skills are really amazing, and he has played the torment and pain of the "social animal" who is crushed by pressure in the workplace. The role of Nicholas Tse is more like the kind of open-minded but depressed workplace goldfinger in Tom Cruise's films.
If you look back at this film from the role played by Jacky Cheung, you can understand "Customs Front" as a social animal in a sense, and if you understand this film from the role played by Nicholas Tse to understand the customs work, it is the main theme that the authentic mission is greater than the sky.