Who is Martin Sandison?

Biography
My name is Martin Sandison. I’m very happy to be part of the HK and cult film news staff, and will do my utmost to spread the word about good (and bad) HK and cult movies. I’m from a small town called Linlithgow in Scotland, which is near the capital, Edinburgh. I‘m 25 years old, and my first cinema-going experience was The Care Bears movie. I’d like to think my tastes have matured somewhat since then. I grew up loving Hong Kong movies from an early age, the first martial arts movie I saw being Enter the Dragon and first HK film Project A. A good start I think you will all attest!

I attended my local secondary school and then moved on to Stirling University and a film and media course. I graduated in 2005 with an honours degree at the second highest level, thanks in the most part to my thesis on Hong Kong cinema. It’s the single piece of work that I’m most proud of, and I loved writing it. The standpoint I took was aesthetic value and cultural context, with films analysed including A Better Tomorrow, Infernal Affairs and Once Upon a Time In China. Since graduating I have worked sporadically on short films and music videos, some self-directed and others as cameraman.

Most of my output is up on Youtube, with camerawork on my friend Scotskid’s music video Sunrise and the short Parkour film Jump, Monk, Jump! Check out my cameo at the start, the bearded guy with green stripey jumper. Scotskid is one of the most viewed directors on Youtube, mainly due to his first Parkour film Extreme game of Tag. My self-directed stuff consists of a trailer for a short Scottish Kung Fu movie called Play and a short romantic tale called Modern Romance. The former stars my Kung Fu teacher and was shot in Edinburgh. I’ve been studying Hung Ga( r ) Kung Fu under him since September ’06, and I love it! Even the intense stance-induced pain. The other guy in the trailer is a teacher I had a few years ago. He unfortunately moved to Australia before we could shoot the film, so we can’t make it unless we go there! However, we are working on another Kung Fu short which I have just finished the script for, so watch this space. To check out the stuff type in Scotskid and Shandalfze, my nickname.

In recent times I’ve been working in an art bookshop, socialising and watching perhaps too many old skool Kung Fu movies, the reviews for some of which you will see on this site. Peace out!