After engineering daring escapes by boat and train in his previous high-octane thrillers “Manos Sucias” and “Catch the Fair One,” Josef Kubota Wladyka would be hard-pressed to top himself. Yet the creativity he employed to pull the action off on a spartan budget appears to have flowed in an entirely different direction for “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!,” a bold departure from the films he’s crafted previously, still considering an exit from one of the most difficult places there is, only for the widow Haru (Rinko Kikuchi), it won’t involve ducking the authorities or any high-speed chase, but rather attempting to overcome the heartache of losing her beloved partner Luis (Damián Alcázar).
However, the comedy still does have its share of high kicks when the two enjoyed competitive ballroom dancing and even for those unfamiliar with Wladkya’s previous work, “Ha-Chan” is bound to take you a bit by surprise with its uncommon exuberance from the start. Although Luis isn’t on screen for long, you understand the depth of the loss pretty instantly when her husband’s sudden passing quite literally stops her in her tracks and it seems unfathomable to expect Haru to move on after seeing him clutch his chest on the floor of the Tokyo Dance Classic. Their love for one another is richly reflected in a brief glimpse of their morning routine when he prepares her breakfast ahead of the tournament and a house full of memories looks a lot emptier without him inside, a feeling emphasized by the film’s exquisite production design. Though sisters Hiromi and Yuki show up for the funeral, they can only do so much to get Haru off the couch and while playing old albums can stir something inside of her, it is only when all three pay a visit to a local dance academy that Haru can start to find her footing again.
The muscular filmmaking that Wladyka brought to his ferocious set pieces in previous films leads to a number of dynamic musical numbers triggered by Haru’s gradual bouncing back to life, but as slick and fanciful as “Ha-Chan” is, it feels undergirded by what Wladyka brings to the table from his own experience as the child of a mixed-race family, provocatively leading to all kinds of blurred lines throughout. The film’s opening sequence in which Luis makes an Oyako don for his wife while preparing eggs to his tastes shaped by his Hispanic heritage symbolizes this perfect marriage where cultural rituals are kept intact while any exposure to another only can improve things and what could be a glum march through grief is instead punched up with the panache Wladyka would bring to any other adventure he’s embarked on, full of color visually and sonically as well in Nathan Halpern’s vibrant score. Yet with co-writer Nicholas Huynh, the director also challenges sedentary thoughts about monogamy as Haru develops a crush on her new dance instructor Fedir (Alberto Guerra), who despite having a well-known partner (Cristina Rodlo) from his days on “Dancing with the Stars,” is free to waltz with whoever he likes with an open marriage and the question becomes not whether he can pursue a relationship with Haru, but whether she can break free of the idea she’s being unfaithful to her late husband.
It was only after the credits came up that I realized it was the star of “Babel” and “Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter” under heavy blue eye-liner and glorious curls of black hair playing Haru, but while Kikuchi may thoroughly disappear into the role, the expressiveness she’s long been known for allows a character at a constant loss for words to come across as loudly as the world she inhabits full of big personalities. There may ultimately be a relatively familiar story of Haru regaining her groove hiding underneath the razzle dazzle, yet when there’s hardly a direct path to climbing out of such deep sorrow, it seems apropos that the film shakes and shimmies to distract from that fact and in taking such an vivacious approach, it’s hard either for her or an audience to linger on death too much when so much life is happening right in front of you.
“Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” will screen again at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23rd at 8:30 am at the Ray Theatre and 6 pm at the Rose Wagner Center in Salt Lake City, January 30th at 2:30 pm at the Megaplex Redstone and February 1st at 8:30 pm at the Library Center Theatre. It will also be available to stream from January 29th through February 2nd on the Sundance virtual platform.