Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, 2026.
Directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka.
Starring Rinko Kikuchi, Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Edda, You, Yoh Yoshida, Charley Flyte, Soji Arai, Chelsea Gonzalez, Derek Mio, and Damián Alcázar.
SYNOPSIS:
Haru and Luis love competing in Tokyo’s ballroom dance scene, but after tragedy strikes, Haru withdraws into isolation. When friends coax her back to the studio, she develops an infatuation with the new instructor.
Everything from an exploration of the powerful connectivity of music and dance transcending language (there is a combination of Japanese, Spanish, and English here all distinctly colored and stylized for clarity), open relationships, and a fantastical study of grief, co-writer/director Josef Kubota Wladyka (penning the screenplay alongside Nicholas Huynh, the movie is dedicated to the filmmaker’s dancer mother) Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is a strange film that will work one moment and possibly feel a bit too whimsical or odd the next.
With a slightly overlong opening, the filmmakers introduce viewers to the lives of Haru (Rinko Kikuchi) and Luis (Alejandro Edda), a rumba-dancing married couple living a quiet, happy life before the latter has a heart attack during their routine lessons. Even nine months removed from Luis’ death, Haru is living in isolation and won’t even come out of the house to celebrate her birthday. She has also started hallucinating seeing Luis at night inside of a black bird costume, no doubt symbolizing the grief she can’t move on from.
Eventually, her friends have had enough of this and basically force her out of the house (one is dialed back, the other is horny and obsessed with sleeping around through dating apps) to take up more dancing lessons, where the three of them come into the sphere of instructor Fedir (Alberto Guerra), absurdly attractive and accomplished but also married. However, after some digging by Haru’s relatives, they learn that he is in an open marriage, which prompts her to research this dynamic, which appears to be unheard of in Japanese culture. Understandably, Haru seems to think all of this is crazy, but she also appears to view Fedir as a potential replacement for her lost love.
In secret, away from her friends, Haru makes her move on Fedir, which allows the film to enter its magical musical groove, complete with imaginative sequences, such as one in which a fight against some street hoodlums harassing the woman transitions into a blend of punches and dance choreography. Another winning moment sees Haru take Fedir to a Japanese dance show, where Fedir is unsure whether he will understand what is happening. That is, until everything breaks out into numbers set to music from Dirty Dancing (if it wasn’t obvious by now, the soundtrack here is wonderful, with Japanese arrangements of well-known Western songs).
From the bright color palette to the costume to the choreography itself, those segments are what give the film most of its charm. In trying to function as a lighthearted take on grief and reinvigoration through life and art, there are also some interesting points made about love and the reactions of those who are in love with someone else. There are reservations to be had about where the open marriage aspect ultimately goes, but Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! remains an idiosyncratic, intentionally messy (just like life), and uplifting look at moving on. The dramatic beats don’t always click, but it is vibrantly acted with equally rising musical numbers and undeniable inventiveness at the helm in director Josef Kubota Wladyka.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
