After a sudden loss, middle-age ballroom dancer Haru (Rinko Kikuchi) goes back to the dance studio to get her groove back, only to find a new sexy instructor who inspires more than just slides across the dance floor. Winner of Best direction at Sundance.

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
Director
Runtime
122 Minutes
Country
United States
Classification
Unclassified 15+
Living in their vinyl filled Tokyo house, committed ball-room dancers specialising in Latin dance, middle-aged Haru (Rinko Kikuchi, Babel) and her husband Luis (Alejandro Edda, Narcos: Mexico) are happily married. Months after a sudden and heart-breaking loss, Haru has really lost her mojo. Family members encourage her back to the dance studio where a sexy new instructor Fedir (Alberto Guerra Narcos: Mexico) might just be the one to help her get her sparkling groove back. This year’s Sundance directing award winners gives full range to Academy Award nominee’s Kikuchi’s famed expressiveness in her grief, her slow return to her beloved dancing and her pursuit of a new love interest whose own life might be just a bit too complicated. Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty is also a tribute to internationalism not just on the dance floor but with characters moving through languages English, Spanish and Japanese. The filmmaker’s celebration of cultural and linguistic diversity is matched by his ambitious tonal mash up shifting between melodrama, magic realism and soap-opera.
“… under the spangly costumes, gaudy eye makeup and extravagant fantasy dance routines, this is a film with real heart …”
Screen Daily
“Even when it is most concerned with death, though, the film is full of life, from the colorful production design to the well-chosen costumes.”
Hollywood Reporter
Sundance - Best Direction
Melbourne

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Film Credits
Director
Josef Kubota Wladyka
Year
2026
Country
United States
Language
English, Japanese & Spanish
Subtitles
English
Type
Feature Fiction
Program Strand
World Cinema
Producer
Kimberley Parker Zox, Mao Nagakura & Josef Kubota Wladyka
Writer
Nicholas Huynh & Josef Kubota Wladyka
Cinematographer
Daniel Satinoff
Editor
Benjamin Rodriguez Jr.
Cast
Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Edda & Rinko Kikuchi
Music
Nathan Halpern
Film Source
Sony Pictures Classics
Genre
Dance, Humour & Romance
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