How smoking is represented in a Malaysian film.

What is it about?

This article looks at images of smoking by female stars in the Malaysian film, Spinning Gasing to show how on-screen actions of young women creates a look that reflects broader social, cultural and economic changes in Asia. This film is an example of how a gendered aesthetic can be created in films around the ‘stylized repetition’ (Butler [c.1988] 2003) of smoking as an important factor in issues of female body image and cultural identity. This article reveals how films from Asia can construct glamorized tobacco imagery of empowered young women.

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Why is it important?

In the light of a series of studies that indicate an alarming rise in the number of young Asian women becoming smokers, this article draws attention to an area under-explored in media and film studies. While much has been written on the glamorization of smoking in Hollywood films and its use as a visual and narrative device, surprisingly little research exists on the portrayal of smoking in Asian cinema.

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