Handbill for the Cantonese movie, ‘Fortune at the Door’

This handbill was used to advertise the Cantonese movie, ‘Fortune at the Door’ (桃花江畔喜临门, Taohuajiangpanxilinmen), also known as ‘Happiness at the Door’ and ‘Allotted Couples’, which was based on a Chinese opera. During its Singapore run, the movie was screened at the Marlborough (曼舞罗, Manwuluo) and New Silver City (新银国, Xinyinguo) cinemas.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.