Honoring Sally Yan Yan Ng

“Honoring Sally Yan Yan Ng” is perhaps the first film series the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has had in memory of an individual, says Marian Luntz, film curator for the museum. “She was someone who was very faithful to our film program. After her death, we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be meaningful to screen some films that she would have liked to see here?’ This will be a nice way to honor her and her love of film.” Ng’s husband, film scholar Sam Ho, a longtime friend and frequent guest curator of the MFAH, will be on hand to introduce the films he chose to honor his late wife.

First will be Offside, which features a group of soccer-crazy girls who want to get into a stadium to watch a game. Pretty simple, right? Well, not for these girls. They live in Iran, and it’s illegal there for women to attend games. But that doesn’t stop them (soccer-crazy girls won’t be so easily deterred). They hatch a scheme to disguise themselves as men and sneak in. But as with most schemes, this one goes awry. With the actual match Iran played to qualify for the World Cup as its setting, Offside is a humorous look at a very serious issue: the restriction of women’s rights in the Middle East.

Second is Days of Being Wild (A Fei zheng chuan), a film our sister paper the Village Voice called “the movie [when] Wong Kar-wai became Wong Kar-wai — the most influential, passionate and romantic of neo-new-wave directors.” The film follows a young man, Yuddy, who learns the alcoholic ex-prostitute who raised him is not his biological mother. The revelation sets off an emotional -journey.

Offside screens at 7 p.m., and Days of Being Wild at 9 p.m. today. 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.com/film. $6 to $7.
Wed., Aug. 6, 7 p.m., 2008