Directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nicholas Huynh, starring Rinko Kikuchi, Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Edda, YOU, You Yoshia, and Damían Alcázar. Wladyka also served as a producer of the film.
Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! is set in the elaborate ballroom dancing scene in Tokyo, Japan. Centering on a dancer, Haru (Rinko Kikuchi), who withdraws into isolation after losing her partner, Luis (Alejandro Edda). When friends coax her back to the studio, she develops an infatuation with her new instructor, Fedir (Alberto Guerra), and must conquer her fears as she battles with grief and the beginnings of new love.
The film was one of the first premieres of the festival, part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the last Sundance in Park City, UT, as the festival will move to Boulder, CO, the following year in 2027. Members of the production gathered to celebrate their work on the film, blending Japanese and Latin flair to create a fresh, vivid, and heartfelt tale that reminds us how it’s never too late to begin again. For many, it was their first time at the festival.
On what attracted Edda to the character of Luis, he said, “Well, unemployment. You know, I gotta work. They gave me a direct offer. These things don’t happen much. And definitely not a project like this. Not a story like this. With a character like this. And it was a no-brainer. Right from the start, when Joseph called me directly. He thought about me for this character.”
Edda continued, “He said the magic words which is… I’m offering you this role. We’re gonna shoot in Japan. And it’s gonna be a musical… And here we are. I couldn’t be more happy to world premiere this fantastic story here at the last edition at Park City. It’s an honor.”
He shared that he has not seen the film himself yet and is excited to view it for the first time. “I wanted to experience it at the same time. With all of you. All these incredible audiences. Filmgoers. Everybody who came from Japan,” Edda said.
The production of the film lasted approximately 3 and a half months, with the actors learning to dance for a month of training to prep for the dance numbers. On what his favorite dance move was, Edda eagerly replied, “Shaking your booty!”
Not an experienced dancer but someone who holds a deep appreciation for music, he had lots of fun learning the moves. Edda said, “I don’t care. I could dance alone or with someone. I don’t mind. I just love music. I like to move. So, this was beautiful. And it was, of course, stressful, because you gotta hit the notes.”
Guerra expressed excitement about being at the festival for the first time for the film, calling it “ecstatic,” and shared his thoughts on the film’s varied layers of dancing, grief, love, and self-discovery.
“It’s an amazing journey of grief. But as it happens in life, once you go into some sort of a journey because you went through something hard in your life, you can experience a lot of things. And life becomes that. It’s almost like a dream world. At the end of the movie, after that, you can go back and think what was that? What was the sort of life that I lived? And that’s what happens in this movie. There’s a lot of layers. I think you learn a lot about these characters.”
By balancing these tones, Guerra did not find it hard to emotionally connect with his character.
“It was so easy to connect with this guy. He’s such a free spirit. He’s pretty much this kind, new way kind of guy that we all wish we were. You know, he has a very open mind. He’s very sensitive. He’s not afraid to show that sensitiveness in his life, and he’s not afraid to say that he admires beautiful things. And he’s [an] amazing dancer. And no, no, it was not hard to connect with him. It was hard to dance. That was the hard part.”
Guerra stated how challenging it was to learn to dance the intense level showcased in the film, but he was determined to make himself appear flawless on screen.
“I knew that from the moment that I stepped into this character, I knew that I wanted to be the best dancer ever on screen, almost. I don’t know if I got there, but… the journey was amazing. I did two months of dancing and choreography and learning how to dance with these beautiful people here.”
Guerra recounted how he experienced culture shock in the best way, being from Cuba, learning how to dance various Latin American rhythms in Tokyo, such as tango, mambo, rumba, cha cha cha, and more. “That was amazing.”
He shared that many would think Cubans know how to dance, but unfortunately for him, he broke the stereotype. He said he loved learning all dancing styles, but tango was his favorite, Guerra said, “I think tango. Tango is so sexy and so hot.”
Composer Nathan Halpern was up to the task to make the score balance the tones of the film set by Wladyka’s vision, which emphasizes the fun upbeat ballroom dance scene and the melancholy tone of the grief Ha-chan endures.
“Yes. I mean, I think our feeling about the film and this just comes completely out of Joseph’s vision… Is that everything about in life. Our experiences, joy, sorrow, these things all kind of come together. And sort of the saddest moments of our lives are sort of transcended to the most beautiful, and vice versa.”
“And sadness that we think that are so funny. So we were able to kind of play with all of that,” Halpern said.
Halpern further described his score, giving us a taste of what audiences can expect to hear.
“We have some cues that are oriented around… Joseph had the idea for like some of the things to do, those kind of more exciting, playful cues, and sort of working that into other stuff. And then in other places, we had, you know, this melange of strings, which are very beautiful, very sad, playing with this inner voice of this flute. And then of course, these fluttering, abstracted hearts, which are these kind of layers the image. We’ll kind of speak to some emotional and romantic butterflies inside.”
The film was among the standouts of the festival, with Wladyka winning the Directing Award for US Dramatic. Additionally, it earned a fresh score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.
On Jan 29. 2026, Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! was acquired by Sony Pictures Classic with a release date to be announced.
