Lankmar seemed really dangerous - good food, good shopping, good entertainment, good chance of getting your throat cut.

the thing that bugs me about Spirited Away is that I know the Japanese characters mean something, but I can't read them, so I feel like I'm missing part of the story.

I think they're all aspects of Shinto myth, if that helps.

Shinto (神道, Shintō?) is the native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. It is a polytheistic and animistic faith, and involves the worship of kami (神, kami?), or spirits. Some kami are local and can be regarded as the spiritual being/spirit or genius of a particular place, but others represent major natural objects and processes; for example, Amaterasu (the Sun goddess), or Mount Fuji.

My proudest moment as a foreign film fan was the day I was watching Jamon Jamon and I'd spent enough time working in a Spanish restaurant to know what tocinillo del ciel was so I was able to recognize it in the dialogue and know that the subtitles could never capture what the character was trying to say.

Okay, now this helps explain the river spirit/kami in Spirited Away.

The kami traditionally possessed two souls, one gentle (nigi-mitama) and the other aggressive (ara-mitama). This human but powerful form of kami was also divided into amatsu-kami ("the heavenly deities") and kunitsu-kami ("the gods of the earthly realm"). A deity would behave differently according to which soul was in control at a given time. In many ways, this was representative of nature's sudden changes and would explain why there were kami for every meteorological event: snowfall, rain, typhoons, floods, lightning and volcanoes

City-wise for me it'd be all about Amélie's Montmarte and Postilano from Under the Tuscan Sun. (A co-worker of mine went to the latter during her summer abroad in Italy for art school—apparently it's as beautiful as in the movie.)

I've always loved Pleasantville post-colorization and Mackinac Island from Somewhere in Time.

And any of Richard Curtis' depictions of London.

Here's something I wrote about Totoro recently: [link]

Hit the nail on the head, Corwood. Even the zen for adults part.

I love the beginning of Princess Mononoke, and I understand, sympathize with, and support the film's message. But I don't watch the movie often because I don't want to subject myself to the ugly later in the movie. I think, though that message is still heavy-handed and overwrought, it was handled with a bit more grace in Nausicaa.

The scope and the harsh bedrock beauty of the Brokeback Mountain landscape appeals to me. I can't think of an urban or suburban movie setting that seems attractive, offhand.

I always thought I'd run away and live in Woody Allen's NY.(I'm not sure if not making it is sad or if I dodged a bullet.) "Tales of The City" SF. Feel privileged that I don't start ranking on the setting of "Raising Arizona," again. But we're never in movies unless as Tattooine or Iraq so that sort of makes me sad. Besides proving that every Easterner I meet really is shocked to find me literate and shod.

I just saw the BEST movie-- Slumdog Millionaire.

I won't say anything about it except... go. Go right away.