Rinko Kikuchi learned ballroom dancing for Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! The actor plays Haru, a Tokyo woman who stops going to the dance studio after her husband dies. When Haru returns, the movement has to feel like part of a life she once knew, not a trick performed just for a movie camera.
Kikuchi told Awards Focus that preparing the dance scenes took real time:
“I spent maybe two or three months preparing for the dancing.”
The film opens in US theaters on September 25. Kikuchi’s character meets a new instructor, played by Alberto Guerra, after returning to the studio. Their connection arrives while she is still grieving Luis, her husband, played by Alejandro Edda. Those scenes ask Kikuchi to show someone who can dance but is not always sure she wants to be there.
Why did she take the role?
Director Josef Kubota Wladyka had worked with Kikuchi on Tokyo Vice. In an interview with JoySauce, she said she wanted another chance to work with him even before she had read the full script:
“Even before I read the script, I knew I wanted to work with him again.”
That earlier connection helped bring her into a project that also asked her to try something new. The film includes dialogue in more than one language and extended ballroom scenes. Kikuchi told Sundance that learning dance and speaking English and Spanish made filming a new experience for her.
The dance work matters because Haru used to love the studio. If she looked like a complete beginner, the story would feel different. Instead, the question is whether she can go back to something that reminds her of Luis. The scenes with Guerra’s instructor add another problem: Haru may want to move forward, but she is not ready for everything that could mean.
Wladyka has spoken about how his mother’s love of ballroom dance inspired the film, while making clear that Haru is not a portrait of her. Kikuchi plays Haru as a character with her own marriage, friends and choices. The director’s inspiration explains why the studio has so much space in the film; it does not tell the audience how Haru’s story ends.
If you are deciding whether to see the film, the Ha-Chan movie page has the confirmed cast, US theater date and official photos. Our film release story explains the plot in more detail. The main point of Kikuchi’s interviews is clear: the dances took months of work, and she chose the film partly because she trusted the director she already knew.
