This handbill was used to advertise the Mandarin movie, ‘Black Bull and White Snake’ (黑牛与白蛇, Heiniuyubaishe), also known as ‘Black Cow and White Snake’. During its Singapore run, the movie was screened at the Gala (嘉宾, Jiabin), Majestic (大华, Dahua), Odeon (奥迪安, Aodian) and Ruby (宝石, Baoshi) 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.
