Rinko Kikuchi stars as a Japanese ballroom dancer navigating love and loss in Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!Sony Pictures Classics/Supplied
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
Directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka
Written by Josef Kubota Wladyka and Nicholas Huynh
Starring Rinko Kikuchi, Alberto Guerra and Alejandro Edda
Rating PG
Run time 122 minutes
Opens in select theatres Sept. 25
Critic’s Pick
When I first learned about the existence of a movie named Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, I assumed I must’ve fallen into a space-time wormhole, and emerged out the other end in 2004, when such quirk-heavy films were sprouting up like weeds. In addition to the film’s whimsical title, take its logline: A Japanese ballroom dancer in Tokyo must learn to embrace love after loss when two dashing, mysterious new figures stroll into her life: a suave but married Spanish dance instructor, and a giant, magical black crow who may or may not embody the spirit of her late husband.
If that material isn’t fit to snag the Audience Award at Sundance circa the early aughts, I’m not sure what might be.
Alejandro Edda plays a suave but married Spanish dance instructor.Sony Pictures Classics/Supplied
Yet after sitting down to actually watch Josef Kubota Wladyka’s film, I can confidently say that the feature lands as far more than the sum of its eccentric, indie-film-cliché parts. A toe-tapping romance that is as effortlessly charming as it is fully aware of its high-concept trappings, Ha-Chan is a movie fit for any era, so long as there are audiences out there eager to be swept off their feet by a director bold enough to take the lead.
Yes, the stuff about the magical bird is true. And yeah, the episodic structure that Wladyka and his co-writer Nicholas Huynh employ, complete with chapter titles read out in two languages with increasing enthusiasm, can be just a little bit eye-rolly. But mostly, this romantic comedy, which follows the misadventures of a dancer named Haru (Rinko Kikuchi) after she loses her husband (Alejandro Edda) to a heart attack, clicks every step of the way.
The film blends Japanese, Spanish and American influences featuring elaborate dance sequences.Sony Pictures Classics/Supplied
The stew of cultures that Wladyka conjures to spice up the story helps immensely. While set in Tokyo, the film injects distinctly Spanish and American sensibilities into the proceedings, allowing the story to swerve in unexpected directions, and not only in terms of its outrageously choreographed dance sequences.
Once Haru, played with depth and sensitivity by Kikuchi, meets a potential suitor in Luis (Alberto Guerra), the film is also injected with a deeply pleasing wave of blood-pumping passion. None of it feels forced, either. With only three films under his belt, Wladyka already feels like an expert at getting you onto a character’s side and into their world with maximum ease.
Take his hand, and waltz into the best film that 2004 never delivered.