"Dying to Survive" Criticized by China Tobacco Control Association for Too Many Smoking Scenes

In a recent monitoring of tobacco shots in popular domestic TV series and movies in 2018 organized by the China Association on Tobacco Control, the movies "Dying to Survive" and "Evil Does Not Suppress Justice" and the TV series "Drug Hunter" won the "Dirty Ashtray Award" for having too many tobacco shots. Four movies including "A River of Sadness" and 20 TV series including "Go Back to Where You Came From" won the "Smoke-Free Film and Television Award".

It is reported that in order to eliminate the influence and temptation of smoking scenes in film and television works on people, especially young people, and to encourage film and television workers to shoot smoke-free film and television works, the China Tobacco Control Association began monitoring tobacco scenes in popular movies and TV series in 2007.

The evaluation results show that among the TV dramas and movies of 2018, the film "Dying to Survive" had the longest tobacco scenes. The film is 116 minutes long, and the total duration of tobacco scenes is 1010 seconds (16.8 minutes), accounting for 14.5% of the total time of the film and 34.9% of the total length of the 26 films with tobacco scenes. The longest time was 112 seconds.

The film "Evil Never Dies" is 137 minutes long and has the most tobacco shots, with a total of 56 shots found, accounting for 17.5% of the total number of tobacco shots in the 26 films, and an average of one tobacco shot every 2.4 minutes; a total of 162 tobacco shots were found in the TV series "Drug Hunter", accounting for 56% of the number of tobacco shots in the 10 films. The total length of the TV series is 2,250 minutes, and the total duration of tobacco shots is 886.9 seconds, accounting for 40.8% of the total length of the 10 films.

On the same day, the China Tobacco Control Association also issued an "Open Letter to the Film and Television Industry", calling on the competent authorities and industry associations to disqualify TV dramas and movies with too many tobacco scenes from participating in the evaluation activities. The association said that smoking scenes in film and television works have seriously weakened people's understanding of the harm of tobacco, and smoking scenes in film and television works have a very important role in inducing young people to try smoking.