Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! review: A feel-good movie about grief

Grief can be weird and funny sometimes.

For example, when I turned up to my grandmother's funeral years ago, I didn't wear a black dress, because I didn't own one.

I was going through a phase where I was avoiding black in anything, save for one pencil skirt that had a white print of octopus tentacles climbing up the side.

So, I wore that skirt with a white top.

When my cousin saw me, she took in my outfit head to toe, then smiled tightly at me, as if she were biting her tongue.

She was dressed all in black formalwear.

I self-consciously explained why I was wearing such non-traditional attire, and she replied, "Gram would have said, 'Well, that sure is something." SEE ALSO: TIFF 2026 preview: 18 films (and shows) you'll want to see (and how) I laughed.

Then she laughed, and then we cried and hugged.

My Gram's back-handed compliments were deeply woven into our family tapestry.

Imagining what she might say if she'd been there was a spark of joy we both needed, even if it came with a bit of a sting.

But there was something healing imagining it all the same.

I thought of this moment while watching Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! Co-written by Nicholas Huynh and Josef Kubota Wladyka, and helmed by the latter, this movie walks the line of comedy and drama, aptly reflecting how grief can bring tears and sparks of odd laughter, sometimes at the same time.

And what a wonderful something to bring to cinemas! What is Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! about? Pacific Rim 's Rinko Kikuchi stars as Haru, a Japanese woman who loves to dance.

She and her adoring Mexican husband, Luis (Alejandro Edda) share this love, competing in the Amateur Latin Senior in Tokyo, where they live.