As the director Hugo Rodriguez referred the film by Quentin Tarantino at the preview screening at Landmark Sunshine Cinema in New York City (August 18, 2004), this new Mexican film is highly influenced by Pulp Fiction, similar to the producer Martha Sosa Elizondo's previous film Amores Perros. Most Pulp-Fiction-like ingredients--interlocked stories about four groups of people (not nonlinear, though), two gangsters' insignificant conversation on smoking and coincidence, extreme close-ups of objects--are so light that the audience may feel even irritated. Drawing the viewers' attention to a specific happening on a part of the screen with a rectangle is cheesy and redundant; even without it the viewers would look at what the filmmakers want them to watch. The title may be inappropriate as cigarette doesn't have a significant meaning in the plot.
