Who is Johnny X?

Back in 2009 I was looking at buying my first Windows Mobile device, and I couldn’t decide which one to get. While I was attracted to the work by HTC, in particular their then current HTC Touch 3G mobile phone (itself their response to the then current iPhone 3G), I was a bit of a Sony Ericsson fanboi, and was seriously considering going for their first WM6.1 device, the XPERIA X1. It was a great little phone, with a fantastic slideout QWERTY keyboard and the world’s first real Retina Display (despite whatever claims Apple might make about the iPhone 4).

What really swayed me about getting the device was the amazing Webisode series that Sony Ericsson put together to assist in marketing the phone. Who is Johnny X? was a 9-part series that was a rip-off of The Bourne Identity, but one in which the hero of the piece uses the features of his new X1 to find out his identity. Ambitious, certainly, but it actually did work as a nice piece of cinema.

So while the original web site itself has long since vanished, the YouTube channel that SE set up for the series is still active, and I thought it might be nice to present the edited together version of the serial on the blog here. Yes, it does attempt to sell you a hideously outdated mobile phone, but the actual storyline is quite cool, and the production values are to die for.

The trailer and the full movie are embedded after the break. Enjoy!

How do you put your life back together when you don’t remember any of it? And what do you do when the most dangerous men in Thailand are after you and you don’t know why? Follow the story of Johnny X, as he regains consciousness and finds himself battered, bruised and in a dark and dangerous part of Bangkok. With no memory of what happened to him, he faces the impossible task of trying to piece his life back together, to find out who he really is. Brought to you by the new Xperia™ X1 from Sony Ericsson, Johnny X is an action-packed tale of intrigue and self discovery.