Josef Kubota Wladyka’s Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is about finding your joy again after a big loss. It gets there through the simplest thing in the world: dancing. With a quiet setup, Haru and Luis love competing together in Tokyo’s ballroom dance scene. Then tragedy strikes, and Haru withdraws into isolation. They used to watch dance videos while eating dinner, night after night, a small ritual that was just fun for them. Now it’s just Haru, eating dinner alone, watching the videos they used to watch together. The absence sits right there in the room with her.
The film lets her sit in her grief. It lets her make choices that aren’t always the healthiest way to cope, because that’s what grief actually looks like. She doesn’t process this loss in a tidy way. They do things that don’t make sense that we see as viewers but make perfect sense when you’re the one carrying the weight. This was on my mind after a family loss this summer. One moment really got me. Her birthday comes, and she skips it entirely. No cake, no acknowledgment. She just lets the day pass like it isn’t happening. That kind of avoidance says more about heartache than any speech could. Something about this moment stuck with me for days.
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Her kooky friends eventually coax her back to the studio, and that’s when things get interesting. There she develops an infatuation with the new instructor, bad boundaries and all, and it helps her tap back into her passion. Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is ultimately about feeling coming back and rediscovering joy through the thing you loved doing with the person you lost. Watching Haru slowly dance again, instead of only holding onto Luis’ memory, is genuinely moving.
The audience I saw this with loved every minute. People applauded more than once during the screening, which rarely happens outside of film festival crowds. By the time the credits rolled, I wasn’t just smiling; I was wiping my eyes and grinning at the same time. Haru dancing again isn’t just a happy ending. It’s proof that the people we lose don’t take our joy with them, even when it feels that way for a long time. This movie snuck up on me. It made me laugh, swoon, and remember why I love watching a movie with an audience. Ha Chan Shake Your Booty is one of the best surprises in a long time. This small, tender film about grief somehow leaves you smiling on the way out.
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is now playing in theaters nationwide.
