Michael Fairbanks
Josef Kubota Wladyka’s Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! leans into a particular slice of musical comedy I haven’t seen tapped since the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (a seminal TV show in my home): elaborate numbers used as a vessel to make personal crises feel larger than life. However, instead of zippy songs meant to encapsulate the elder millennial experience, Wladyka leans entirely on the art of dance. Even without these elements, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! would’ve been an equally funny and potent exploration of how someone can move through grief by tapping into modern relationship dynamics. With frequent dance breaks, it becomes one of 2026’s most distinct and human stories.
We follow Haru (Rinko Kikuchi of Babel), a woman deeply in love with her husband Luis (Alejandro Edda). Ballroom dancing is the shared hobby that keeps their spark alive, until Luis suffers a fatal medical incident on the dance floor. Haru initially struggles to get out of the house, despite the begging from her two best friends, Hiromi (YOU) and Yuki (Yoh Yoshida). Eventually, they manage to drag her to another dance class led by the smoking-hot instructor Fedir (Alberto Guerra). Haru is reluctant to act on that attraction until she learns that Fedir is in an open marriage, leaving space for her to rediscover her sexual urges while not being entirely forthright about what she is going through.
While never invalidating its heavy subject matter, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is relentlessly warm in tone. This is most exemplified by the friendship between Haru, Hiromi, and Yuki. A more typical entry in this genre might’ve made Hiromi and Yuki undercut Haru’s healing process in some manner for contrived drama. Instead, they support Haru through every single messy decision, even encouraging her to make more of them. Despite the film’s theatrical cadence, Wladyka and Nicholas Huynh’s screenplay keeps all of these characters grounded and rather pleasant to watch. This extends into the film’s view of non-monogamy. The film never wags its finger at that lifestyle in a moralistic way; Haru is just not all that good at participating.
Rinko Kikuchi is fantastic as Haru in Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! It would’ve been easy to stereotype this character as a broken person with an overactive imagination stemming from an infantile nature. Instead, she’s unendingly sympathetic. It’s a complete delight to watch her open herself back up to joy. Even her later turn into bad behavior feels like a triumph in some aspects. She also shares an easy chemistry with Alejandro Edda, a total charmer in his own right. Fedir is not a one-note player. He has genuine compassion for both his wife and the other people he sleeps with. Haru spends most of their relationship lying about Luis’ death, instead claiming that she is in an open marriage as well. We squirm at that decision because we know we are in for an entirely unnecessary blowup with someone who would not be judgemental in the face of the truth.
Wladyka paces the surreal musical elements perfectly. Characters aren’t constantly breaking out into dance to express anything Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is worried we won’t figure out. Rather, it highlights the heightened moments in which Haru is allowing herself to be present in her life again. Most notably, there is a sequence in which a group of men harass her and Fedir while they are on a date. Fedir demands an apology and ends up getting into a fight that spills into ballet. Fedir and Haru aren’t the only ones doing it; the mean guys also get a few moves in. It implies that even they, by being a part of a memorable moment, will be canonized in Haru’s remembrance of this moment in the years to come. The choreography across the board is wonderful, effortlessly switching between more conventional ballroom fare and musical style in-world numbers. This would’ve worked just as well as a stage show.
Sometimes the pleasantness does undercut the darker themes in Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, most notably with Luis’ re-appearances in Haru’s subconscious. He lingers in private moments as a figure in a giant bird mascot costume. It’s perpetually silly-looking, even during the most dramatic moments it is a part of. There’s only one truly effective dream sequence involving Luis meeting Fedir, which works because it shoots for one of the film’s biggest laughs. I do wish that the rest had hit harder, especially the climactic one, which felt undercut by this goofy costume mixed with some unfortunate visual effects during an otherwise moving bit of catharsis.
I expect that Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! will be deeply healing for those going through losses of their own. This is particularly refreshing in a time when horror is the main genre tapping into these themes, mostly to wring upsetting shock moments out of them. Even when those movies are great, they might be one-time watches for those who struggle to enjoy movies that depict severe trauma. Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! begs to be added to a comfort watch rotation.
