Sundance-winning director Josef Kubota Wladyka takes us inside the joyous, deeply personal HA-CHAN, SHAKE YOUR BOOTY! —A joyous reminder to keep dancing.
Some films remind us that even when life breaks your heart, there is still music to be heard—and every reason to keep dancing.
HA-CHAN, SHAKE YOUR BOOTY! does exactly that. Filled with tenderness, magical realism, unexpected humor, and an irresistible sense of joy, the film stars Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi as Haru, a woman whose life in Tokyo has been built around ballroom dancing with her husband, Luis.
When tragedy turns her world upside down, Haru retreats from life—until family, friendship, and the possibility of new desire begin pulling her back onto the dance floor.
The film is deeply personal for director Josef Kubota Wladyka. Inspired by his Japanese mother—a single parent who found strength and freedom through ballroom dancing—it celebrates the power of music and movement to carry us through loss, cross cultures, and reconnect us with life.
At the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, Wladyka received the Directing Award for U.S. Dramatic—fitting recognition for a film that moves effortlessly between sorrow and laughter, the everyday and the fantastical.
Join us for our conversation with director Josef Kubota Wladyka about the mother who inspired the film, collaborating with the extraordinary Rinko Kikuchi, and why, no matter how messy life becomes, we should never stop dancing, on INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE, starting now.
