Sundance review: 'Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!' centers on a dance-loving widow getting back in the world, and benefits from the utterly charming Rinko Kikuchi

For a story about grief and loss, director Josef Kubota Wladyka’s “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” Is remarkably exuberant and, literally, light on its feet as it follows a woman’s dance-filled journey through widowhood.

The great Japanese actor Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel,” “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter”) stars as Haru, who lives in Tokyo with her Mexican-born husband, Luis (Alejandro Edda), where they live a blissful life of cooking meals for each other and sharing an impressive collection of vintage vinyl. Their shared passion, besides each other, is ballroom dancing, and they’re in the midst of a competition when Luis suffers a fatal heart attack.

After dealing with the funeral arrangements, and disagreeing with Luis’s father (Damián Alcázar) about how to tend to Luis’ remains, Haru is at a loss for how to carry on. Her sisters, Yuki (You Yoshida) and Hiromi (played by the Japanese presenter/actor YOU), suggest she go back to the dance studio where she and Luis used to practice, so they do.

At the studio, Haru becomes quite smitten with the new instructor, Fedir (Alberto Guerra), a Cuban dancer who was a pro on Japan’s version of “Dancing With the Stars.” Hiromi reads a rumor online that Fedir and his dancer wife, Mila (Keren Louis), have an “open” marriage, and that he got caught in bed with a gymnast from “Dancing With the Stars.” Would this be an opening for Haru, aka Ha-Chan, to see how far flirting with the new dance instructor will go? Yes, yes it would.

The other complication to Haru’s small obsession with Fedir is that she keeps seeing Luis in their house. Sometimes he appears in a giant black bird costume, like a mascot for a very depressed football team. 

Wladyka, co-writing with Nicholas Huynh, neatly maneuvers from Haru’s daily life to her waking dream state, which sometimes manifests in musical numbers — including an extended riff on “Dirty Dancing” that’s a delight to watch unfold. The lightness is deceptive, though, as the film looks through it to find Haru’s deep grieving for Luis.

Kikuchi’s performance is enchanting, which should not be a surprise to anyone who saw “Kumiko” at Sundance a dozen years earlier. Often, she deploys a deadpan that makes Buster Keaton look expressive — but when she smiles, which she does often with Eddo’s Luis, it melts your heart.

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‘Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for some sexuality and language. Running time: 122 minutes.

The film screens again: Friday, Jan. 30, 2:30 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 4, Park City; Sunday, Feb. 1, 8:30 p.m., Park City Library, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, now through Sunday, Feb. 1.