Peter Howick, Irish, Ha Noi

I have not seen Avatar yet, but I think the smoking scene is not a big problem.

Firstly, this is a fictitious movie, so smoking may not harm human's health in this world.

The success of this 3D movie includes a lot of factors such as good film script, impressive characters, awesome scenes, etc.

Therefore, that one character asked for cigarette is a normal thing.

The audiences receive and remember this movie because of its whole content and meaning, as well as the messages of the film makers, not due to one small detail.

Secondly, the smoking scene shouldn't worry the anti-smoking community because a lot of people in the world know the harmfulness of smoking.

The character in Avatar is just a person like some one in this real world; sometimes he needs a cigarette to reduce his stress and he can't stop smoking immediately.

Maybe this character will give up smoking someday.

Hence, such scenes may not promote the habit of smoking.

To sum up, Avatar is a film, and the smoking scene is not likely to have much of an affect on people.

Nguyen Ngoc Dung, Vietnamese, Ha Noi

You raised an interesting point about Sigourney Weaver's smoking in the brilliant Avatar.

The film is surely destined to be the most successful film ever shown in Viet Nam, and the entire world

. However, I don't think her filthy habit will offend non-smokers.

And I wonder if the reason we notice her puffing is because there is actually less smoking in movies than there used to be.

If you look at movies from previous decades you can barely see the characters for the smoke.

In Key Largo, Humprey Bogart made cigarettes look cool by lighting them two at a time so he could hand one to his screen flame Lauren Bacall.

In the case of Avatar, however, I feel the character Ms Weaver plays is just blowing off some stress.

What would be disturbing would have been if the film had featured a particular brand.

That is often the case in Hollywood films but not in Avatar.

Secondly people do smoke.

And while I laud the government anti-smoking policies you can no more stop Hollywood from showing people smoking than you can stop Hollywood showing people getting beaten up or shot.

Finally Avatar is set many years in the future.

As to whether there will still be smoking bans in the workforce then I couldn't say!

Ryu Hashimoto, Japanese, Binh Duong

As a light smoker, I think that smoking scenes don't promote the habit of smoking.

It depends on each person's situation.

Tobacco is a luxury good and indispensable for some kind of films such as action films, war films and so on.

I think it must involve the social responsibility of film-makers to enlighten smokers regarding the harmful influence of smoking to non-smokers, especially for babies and pregnant women.

That means film-makers should not only prohibit smoking but also should enlighten smokers where to smoke.

In my opinion, Vietnamese smokers don't follow the rule in public.

They smoke everywhere, all the time...

It's a big problem not only for non-smokers but also smokers.

The present policy of Viet Nam is suitable one.

How about increasing the price of tobacco such as in the US, Singapore, Japan?

In Japan, the number of smokers has decreased because of the price of tobacco and the decrease in the number of places where people can smoke in public.

How about adding terrible photos of lung cancer, pharyngeal cancer caused by smoking on the package such as in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia?

I think that may decrease the number of smokers.

This article was first published in Vietnam News/Asia News Network.

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