To paraphrase a classic American crime film (and TV show), there are eight million stories in My Heavenly City, and this affecting film focuses on just a few of them. Director Sen-I Yu, has made a few shorts already but this is her first feature, and in some ways this plays like three short films loosely woven together. Still, all the components are strong and aesthetically cohesive, if verging on the sentimental. Each story revolves around immigrants, most of whom are originally from Taiwan, like the director herself. They are living in New York and dealing with the loneliness, stress and anxiety caused by the city itself as well as feelings prompted either by their estrangement from their families – or, as in the last story, proximity to family who moved to the city with them.
In the first chapter, 15th Street, depressed student Mavis Fang is struggling to get over a recent breakup and complete her dissertation on immigration. In the opening scene, she gets a call from the father of a little boy she was just about to start tutoring in Mandarin, but learns that the lessons will have to be postponed for an indeterminate time.
