Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

Rinko Kikuchi Dances Her Way Through Grief

ComedyDramaRomance

In cinemas during TIFF · Limited Sep 23, 2026 (US)

★ Shortlisted by MarcLevyTO

Programme: Centrepiece
Year: 2026
Runtime: 121 min
Country: United States of America
Language: Spanish / English / Japanese
Premiere: Canadian Premiere
In cinemas: Sep 23, 2026 (US)

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.

From the TIFF programme

Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi (TIFF ’06’s Babel) stars in this fantasy-fuelled fable from director Josef Kubota Wladyka (Catch the Fair One), which follows a Tokyo ballroom enthusiast as she dreams and dances her way through spells of bliss and sorrow.

Featuring a beautifully detailed lead performance from Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi (TIFF ’06’s Babel), the latest from director Josef Kubota Wladyka (Catch the Fair One) is at once graceful and quirky, fleet-footed, and profound. Following a Tokyo ballroom dance enthusiast through spells of bliss and sorrow, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! surely ranks among the most inventive and playful stories of grief on film.

Haru (Kikuchi) always has one foot in fantasy. When she and her husband Luis (Alejandro Edda) take to the dance floor, they ascend high above their fellow hoofers. When Luis is suddenly taken from Haru, her passion for ballroom dancing — her passion for life — is gutted in tandem.

Depression sets in, her dog goes to live with her sister, and she is visited regularly by a colossal crow, an emblem of the man with whom she once shared her life. It is only when destiny presents Haru with a new Spanish dance instructor (Alberto Guerra) that a sense of purpose returns in the form of romantic pursuit, fuelled by vibrant new daydreams — including the realm of Dirty Dancing. But can Haru make room in her heart for another poised partner?

Written by Kubota Wladyka and Nicholas Huynh, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is a stylized melange of melodrama and fantasia in which the pain of life’s transitions is eased by the spirit of art, imagination and the joy of movement.

ANITA LEE

Content advisory: sexual content, mature themes