Rinko Kikuchi on Dance, Grief and Multicultural Love in Sundance Drama ‘Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!’

Japanese star Rinko Kikuchi is returning to the Sundance Film Festival for the second time as a lead actor, bringing the multilingual drama “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” to Park City’s U.S. Dramatic Competition.

The Tokyo-set feature, directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka, marks Kikuchi’s first Sundance selection since 2014’s “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter.”

Kikuchi, who received an Academy Award nomination for her breakout role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Babel,” portrays Haru, a ballroom dancer processing the loss of her husband and dance partner Luis while navigating desire and reinvention. The role required intensive preparation, including six months of ballroom dance training to convincingly portray the character’s deep connection to the art form.

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“I realized that dance and Luis are the two things [that are] essential and everything to the character Haru,” Kikuchi explains. “I needed the dance to be as convincing as possible. It was very critical in order to show Haru and Luis’ relationship.”

“Luis is such a big part of Haru’s life, and so is dance — something that was very crucial, and also something that gives a vector and a spine to Haru’s life. And so it was something that I put a lot of emphasis on,” Kikuchi adds.

Wladyka’s previous credits include “Manos Sucias” and episodes of Netflix’s “Narcos” and HBO’s “Tokyo Vice.” For “Ha-Chan,” the director rewrote the title role specifically for Kikuchi after working with her on the HBO series.

“We really worked together to make the script as best as it can be,” Kikuchi says. “Josef, as a director, was somebody who is very flexible in that way and very much created an environment of openness where I was able to include my own thoughts.”

The character was shaped by Wladyka’s personal history. His mother, now 81, has been competing in ballroom dance competitions throughout her life. Kikuchi studied photographs and videos of her to inform the performance. “The character herself is modeled after Josef’s mom,” Kikuchi says. “Dance is what makes, what enriches her life. The liveliness that comes out of the character is very much modeled after Josef’s mother.”

The film weaves together Japanese, Mexican and American cultural elements, reflecting the multicultural marriage between Haru and Luis. “This couple is a multicultural couple who has this love toward this very small, specific niche world of dance, and they have built their love together,” the actor explains. She draws parallels between the couple’s somewhat isolated world and Japan’s geographic insularity, suggesting this context intensifies their need for each other.

The cast includes Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Edda, Yoh Yoshida, You and Damián Alcázar. The film is shot in English, Japanese and Spanish.

For Kikuchi, the Sundance selection validates both the filmmaking process and her initial creative instincts. “The fact that somebody watched the film and then decided to pick it up in this way complements the acting and the filmmaking itself, but it also does really emphasize something about my first initial instinct to even jump into this project,” she says.

Asked what she hopes audiences will take away from the film, Kikuchi reflects on the universality of loss. “To lose somebody that is very important to you is something that everybody, in one way or another, experiences,” she says. “We see Haru experience this thing of losing somebody very special to her, and yet, through everything, decides that she wants to continue living.”

Looking ahead, Kikuchi is currently in rehearsals for her first-ever theater production, which will occupy her schedule from late January through March. She also has several film projects lined up for 2026, though specific details remain under wraps.

CAA Media Finance is handling world sales on the project. The Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 22-Feb. 1 in Park City, Utah.