In Josef Kubota Wladyka‘s Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!, the co-writer/director tells a beautifully relatable story of life, love and loss with some Fosse-quality dance numbers and just the right amount of whimsy.
Set in Tokyo, the comedy/drama follows Haru (Rinko Kikuchi) after her happy life with husband and dance partner Luis (Alejandro Edda) comes to a halt when he dies suddenly in the middle of a ballroom competition.
After nine months, Haru is in self-imposed isolation until her friends Yuki (Yoh Yoshida) and Hiro (YOU) drag her out of the house and to a dance class, where she’s immediately smitten with her instructor Fedir (Alberto Guerra)—an impromptu dance number breaking out to humorously emphasize the character’s reconnection with life, one of a few.
Hiring Fedir for private lessons, Haru soon learns that he’s in an open marriage with his own dance partner. Uninterested in the concept of non-monogamy, she plays along and lies that she has an arrangement with her husband, whom she says is still alive. A brief but passionate fling ensues between the pair, before Fedir’s wife sparks some deliciously unpredictable jealousy in Haru.
Meanwhile, Haru is stuck grieving Luis, unable to move on as his ghost periodically visits her in a giant crow costume, ready to dance with her. It’s a heavy-handed metaphor that ultimately earns consistent laughs throughout, albeit the playfully absurd surrealism is sure to make some audiences in Middle America roll their eyes.
Kikuchi shines in a painfully complex role of a woman trying to regain touch with her appetite for life, selling the character not only through her heartbreaking acting, but through her dance moves, which personify every emotion she faces with the utmost humanity.
YOU also delivers a hilarious supporting performance as the wry divorcee who pushes her friend with the wisdom, “It’s OK to get messy. That’s life.”
All big productions with stunning set pieces, none of the dance scenes feel too forced, representing Haru’s big emotions in certain situations—one grand number on a train uses practical effects to create a beautiful illusion. Granted, there is one Japanese re-creation of Dirty Dancing after several nods to the 1987 movie, which might come off cheesy, but seeing it through Haru’s eyes manages to recapture some of the tingly feelings from the Swayze-Grey classic.
A tribute to his own ballroom-dancing mother, Wladyka paints a beautiful picture of life and love, grief and closure, using dance as a universal language to express all of the above, with help from a talented ensemble of Japanese and Latin actors.
Producers are Kimberly Parker Zox, Mao Nagakura and Josef Kubota Wladyka, with executive producers James Hausler, Rinko Kikuchi and Kenji Ito.
Title: Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!
Festival: Sundance (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Director: Josef Kubota Wladyka
Screenwriters: Josef Kubota Wladyka and Nicholas Huynh
Cast: Rinko Kikuchi, Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Edda, YOU, Yoh Yoshida and Damián Alcázar
Sales agent: CAA
Running time: 2 hr 2 min