Shaolin Mantis

Wei Fung is a scholar who is also skilled in martial arts. The Manchu emperor compels him to infiltrate the Tien clan, whose members are suspected of loyalty to the deposed Ming dynasty, and to gather evidence against them. His family's lives depend on his success, and he has limited time to return with proof. He enters the clan under the guise of tutoring the leader's granddaughter, Gi Gi. She falls in love with him, and he comes to care for her, which puts his mission and his loyalty to his family in conflict. The clan's members are formidable fighters, and suspicions about his true identity complicate his position.

Lau Kar-leung directed the film for Shaw Brothers, working from a screenplay by Szeto On, with Runme Shaw producing. It followed The 36th Chamber of Shaolin in the director's filmography and arrived in the same year, 1978. David Chiang plays Wei Fung, Cecilia Wong plays Gi Gi, and Lau Kar-Wing plays her grandfather, Master Tien, among a credited cast of forty.

The film runs 100 minutes and was released in Hong Kong on June 28, 1978. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.7 from 813 votes, while on TMDB it has a rating of 6.5 from 31 votes. The vote counts indicate that the two sites reflect very different levels of audience participation.