Final Rating: 3.5/5
From director Josef Kubota Wladyka (Catch the Fair One) Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty tells the tale of love, loss and the (dance) steps to healing. Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) stars as Haru. She and her husband Luis (Alejandro Edda) are enamoured with ballroom dancing and compete across Tokyo. Wladyka’s vision and the script by Wladyka and Nicholas Huynh utilize this outlet to highlight the couple’s passion for the sport and one another.
After tragedy strikes, and Luis passes of a heart attack on the dance floor at one of their competitions, Haru becomes withdrawn and isolated (captured less than subtlety as she shuts all the curtains in the house), including skipping out on her own birthday party her sister Yuki (Yoh Yoshida) organized. Eventually Yuki and their friend Hiromi (You) force her out of her rut, and back to the dance studio with them. It is here she meets the new instructor, Fedir (Alberto Guerra).
Fedir, as such stories go, is a very handsome man with whom the women of the class are all enamoured with. He is a professional dancer, in an open marriage with his wife, and dance partner Mina (Keren Louis). The fact of their ‘open marriage’ is lauded by Hiromi, who is herself divorced and very much the archetype of the oft crass, horny friend who encourages Haru to get back into the dating scene.
She is still very much in mourning and reticent. Hiromi’s role throughout is that of comic relief, or, to borrow a dance phrase, keep Haru on her toes. It’d be overly critical to say the humour missteps, but is certainly not where the strength of the narrative lies.
The dance scenes are well crafted and exhibit the emotions aligned with the story beats as they themselves become part of the narrative. While interspersed, they’re visually captivating and give some needed energy to the story. It also nicely intermixes elements of Luis’s Mexican culture alongside the local Japanese customs.
Haru and Fedir soon begin an affair, though the film does little new in charting the pitfalls of what an ‘open’ relationship may entail, in particular when one party is more invested than the other. This comes to a head at Fedir’s Halloween party when Mina, who has been living in Europe, attends, causing Haru’s tensions to boil over. She attempts to make amends, only causing further strain between her and Fedir.
At its core, it’s a story about love, loss, healing, and the strength to carry on. It’s at its strongest when it taps into these human emotions, and much of that is due to the lead performance of Rinko Kikuchi. We empathise with Haru and thus are willing to chart this course with her. Her character is the focus, and really the only one given any great depth, and is wisely utilized as the focal point.
A number of close up shots chart her every emotion, and the vibrant dance scenes and décor help it pop off the screen. The scenes between Luis and Haru convey their love, even if there isn’t much backstory provided you know intrinsically they genuinely care for one another.
The script is neither particularly original or inventive, hitting the familiar notes in a recognizable fashion, but the direction, production design and lead performance help give it a bit extra in what could have otherwise been a pretty generic story. There is suffering at the heart of it, but a sort of beauty in that love, and remembering it as part of the grieving process. Haru serves to remind us that the things we love in life are what give it meaning, and to embrace them whenever we can.
Thank you to Mongrel Media for the screener.
