Smoking scenes in movies and TV shows. [File photo]

Despite its success at the box office, the hit movie Let the Bullets Fly has drawn criticism from anti-smoking campaigners who presented the makers of the film with a tongue-in-cheek award on Wednesday for its many smoking scenes.

"The bullets flew and so too did the dirty ashtrays," said Xu Guihua, deputy director of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control (CATC) as she revealed the winners of the 2010 "Ashtray Award", for Chinese-made movies and TV shows.

The TV series Red Cradle was also singled out, getting an award for having the most smoking scenes among TV shows.

Out of the 70 movies and TV shows that were popular with viewers last year, only 14 movies and six TV shows were smoke-free, the association said.

Let the Bullets Fly, which was directed by Jiang Wen, ranked the smokiest, with 80 smoking scenes in all.

Notably, Jiang, who acted in the film as a bandit, appeared in 41 of the scenes while smoking.

"You can see someone light up every couple of minutes, which has a negative impact on viewers, especially the young," she said.