Lai Man-wai (Chinese: 黎民偉; pinyin: Li Minwei; September 25, 1893 – October 26, 1953), also romanised as Lay Min-wei or M.W.

In the film, Lai played the role of the wife, partly due to the reluctance of women to participate in show business at the time.

Born in Yokohama, Japan, of Xinhui, Guangdong origin and raised in Hong Kong, he joined Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang party in 1911 and helped make anti-warlord movies.

[1]: 54  Because Lai believed that cinema in China should serve the country's revolution and modernization, Minxin's early productions focused on documentaries dealing with educational, current affairs, and cultural topics.

Lai Man-wai is portrayed in Stanley Kwan's 1991 biopic of actress Ruan Lingyu, Center Stage by Hong Kong actor, Waise Lee.