Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!
Review by Ryan Michael Painter
My seventeenth year of covering the Sundance Film Festival kicks off with the Salt Lake City screening of Josef Kubota Wladyka’s homage to his mother, Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!
122 Minutes
Written by Josef Kubota Wladyka and Nicholas Huynh
Directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka
Synopsis:
Haru and Luis love competing in Tokyo’s ballroom dance scene, but after tragedy strikes, Haru withdraws into isolation. When friends coax her back to the studio, she develops an infatuation with the new instructor. She must face what comes next as sparks fly.
Set in Tokyo, Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! is a beautiful melting pot where Japanese, English, Spanish, and a dash of French is spoken and cultural differences are exploredthrough the grieving Ha-chan, a housewife with a passion for ballroom dance.
Following the unexpected death of her husband, Ha-chan sees his body taken back to Mexico by his family. Not allowed to give him a proper Japanese burial, Ha-chan is haunted by his spirit in the form of a man in a raven costume.
After nine months of living as a recluse, Ha-chan returns to her community dance class where she finds a renewed passion for life courtesy of her new exotic instructor.
Told in a magical, heart wrenching, and frequently humorous way Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty is the universal story of a woman trying to reclaim her life in the wake of tragedy. The cinematography, choreography, and eclectic soundtrack come together to create a world where reality and fantasy comfortably entwine around a fantastic performance from Rinko Kikuchi.
Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! Stars is featured as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition category and stars Rinko Kikuchi, Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Edda, YOU, Yoh Yoshida and Damián Alcázar.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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