(Los Angeles) Japanese companies are turning to MJM for help in short film production. Seeing a demand for video-on-demand style movies, Honda Motor Company of Japan and others have decided to allocate part of their budgets that typically goes to television commercials, to short films instead.

Two producers, Ralph Winter and Mark Joseph, recently successfully completed two short films which have created an internet buzz and become a favorite in car-showrooms and online film sites in Japan.

Joseph's MJM Entertainment Group and Winter's Thomas/Winter/Cooke (TWC) teamed up with Tokyo-based Cross Media to produce the films which were shot in Oklahoma and Canada. These films are part of a corporate branding strategy that has become increasingly popular.

For Honda, MJM and TWC in associaion with Steelehouse Productions shot on location in Oklahoma a heartwarming story that prominently featured a new Honda car, The Edix, which was produced exclusively for the Japanese market. The plot features a young girl whose parents are on the brink of divorce who gets lost and is found by two young divorce lawyers who happen to be representing both parents in the divorce. The young girl is shuttled around town in one of the lawyers' Edix and later is taken home in her parents Edix.

"Corporate branding is the wave of the future," commented Winter. "There is no selling here-nobody is saying 'go out and buy a Honda,' but we created a powerful story around the subtext of this family car."

"It's a good investment for companies like Honda to redirect their efforts away from explicit commercials and instead focus on storytelling," commented Joseph whose command of the Japanese language and culture grew out of his having spent the first 18 years of his life in Tokyo. "With Cupid and Honda we were able to tell a beautiful story about a family that avoided breaking up and one of the heroes in the story was the Edix."

Shot on location in four days in Oklahoma, Cupid's shooting requirements included shipping an Edix from Japan to the port of Los Angeles and having it transported by ground to Tulsa under a veil of secrecy to protect the as yet unreleased car.

MJM and TWC plan future efforts and are preparing for a wave of short films to supplement the standard 30-second commercial.

"I was pleased with the outcome of Cupid and am looking forward sincerely to making more shorts in the U.S. in the near future," said Kanjiro Sakura of Cross Media.