The first and second Gods Must Be Crazy films followed Xixo the Bushman and his misadventures with modernity. The Gods Must Be Crazy III was about a Chinese vampire. Which of these is not like the other?
Unlike The Gods Must Be Crazy and The Gods Must Crazy II, 1991’s The Gods Must Be Crazy III (a.k.a. Crazy Safari) was made by a Hong Kong production company. The film still starred N!xau the Namibian Bushman, but instead of cultural misunderstandings concerning Coca-Cola bottles, the film was about a lost jiang shi, a.k.a. a Chinese vampire. Yes, the hopping, ponytailed, Chinese vampire that can be enslaved with a talisman written on yellow paper.
I have no clue what any of this has to do with Kalahari tribesmen, but it makes for one great multicultural car crash of a motion picture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F2Kvz1IvNk
Not that I have any great nostalgia for The Gods Must Be Crazy, but this is plum inexplicable. Imagine if a Ukrainian studio produced Caddyshack 3, and the film wasn’t about a golf course but Baba Yaga trying to cook a stew out of Chevy Chase and Bill Murray. What if a Filipino company remade Animal House with a cast made entirely of tikbalangs? That’s what this feels like. 1980s comedy + mythological beasts + insanity = a Friday night I endorse.
