N!xau

                                                                                                                     (Nixau, G!kau)

                     Actor, Bushman

                                              To pronounce N!xau- Cluck your tongue followed by the 'ow' sound

 

                              N!xau, a Kalahari bushman from the plains of South Africa, was plucked from obscurity and 

                             cast in Jamie Uys' satirical 1982 film The Gods Must Be Crazy. The story was a lighthearted

                                  yarn about how a Coke bottle dropped from a plane into the African savannah turns an

                              entire village upside down. N!xau was chosen because, like the character in the film, he had

                                   never been exposed to any aspect of modern civilization, giving the film an authentic

                              documentary feel. In 1984, The Gods Must Be Crazy was released in America, propelling it 

                                  into the record books as the most successful foreign film to be shown in the U.S. ever.

                               

                              The overseas promotion for the film included a trip to Japan, where, as Jamie Uys recounted,

                              N!xau was received with enthusiasm and adoration. A bigger budget sequel followed in 1989. 

                               Though The Gods Must Be Crazy II was possibly sweeter and funnier than the original, it

                                 failed to sustain N!xau's career as an actor. Enter Hong Kong, the only film industry who

                                                   embraced N!xau after the "Gods Must Be Crazy" craze ceased. 

 

                               N!xau's first HK film was a blend of genres- hopping vampires cavorted alongside lions and 

                             wild ostriches when Taoist priest Lam Ching Ying winds up in Africa with a runaway corpse.

                                  Lam teams up with local bushman N!xau and possesses the bushman with the spirit of 

                             Bruce Lee to fight off adversaries. Crazy Safari also featured the narration of Stephen Chow

                                                                                        and Ng Man Tat.

                                  More craziness ensued in Crazy Hong Kong, which co-starred Lau Ching Wan and 

                                 Carina Lau in yet another variation on the franchise in which N!xau comes to modern 

                                         Hong Kong and undergoes culture shock in its unfamiliar fast paced setting.

                            The Gods Must Be Funny in China was another jungle caper with Kent Cheng, Simon Loui, 

                                 Cheng Pei Pei, Cynthia Khan, and Chan Lung as the bad guy. N!xau's HK movies did

                               not use his real voice, however, so his distinctive Ju/'hoansi 'clicking' language was entirely 

                                                                                 dubbed over in Chinese. 

                                     N!xau did not make any movies after 1994, though he maintained contact with the 

                                       film company who had discovered him. Reportedly he resumed his life in Africa 

                                     herding cattle, hunting and farming vegetables. In July 2003, he died in Namibia of     

                                                                                    unknown causes. 

                                                                      

                                                                     N!xau Filmography (HK)

                                                                                         

 

                                                                                  

                                                            N!xau Filmography

                                                                                         

 

 

                                                                                      

                                                                  Thai poster for The Gods Must Be Crazy        

 

                                                                           

                                                                                         Lau Ching Wan with N!xau

 

                                       

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