Handbill for the Cantonese movie, ‘Emperor Zhengde's Night Visit to the Dragon and Phoenix Inn’

This handbill was used to advertise the Cantonese movie, ‘Emperor Zhengde's Night Visit to the Dragon and Phoenix Inn’ (正德皇夜探龙凤店, Zhengdehuangyetanlongfengdian), also known as ‘Secret Love’, which was based on a Chinese opera. During its Singapore run, the movie was screened at the Marlborough (曼舞罗, Manwuluo) cinema.Between the 1950s and 1960s, most Mandarin, Cantonese and other Chinese-dialect movies were made in Hong Kong by film production companies with financial support from Singapore-based film studios such as Shaw Brothers, Cathay and Kong Ngee (光艺, Guanyi). These studios were also involved in the distribution and exhibition of these movies in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia through their network of cinemas. In the early 1970s, Mandarin movies from Taiwan became popular, but by the late 1970s, Hong Kong movies were dominant once more.