Sometimes I see movies that make me want to travel to the place in which they were filmed. This is a list of movies that I not only liked but also thought reflected a place or culture well and/or made me want to travel to the source! I put the countries in which the movies were filmed in parentheses.

1. Lost in Translation (Japan): Sofia Coppola directed this film about a jaded movie star (Bill Murray) and a lonely newlywed (Scarlet Johansson) who become friends while they're staying in the same hotel in Tokyo. The city itself almost seems to be a star in this film as both Murray and Johnasson experience what it means to be a foreigner in Japan.
2. City of God (Brazil): This was a powerful film about a Rio de Janeiro housing project built in the 1960's that became one of the most dangerous places in the city in the 70's and early 80's. It's based on a true story and seen through the eyes of a kid who wants to become a photographer. The cinematography in this film and the images of Rio and its people were amazing!
3. Volver (Spain): This is my favorite Pedro Almodovar film. It's about three generations of women (including Penelope Cruz) who try to fix a series of pretty serious mistakes they each made. I really liked the shots of the Spanish countryside and Almodovar's depiction of small towns and their culture.
4. After the Wedding (Denmark and a bit in India): This film is about a manager of an orphanage in India who goes to Denmark to get funds and discovers a series of secrets. The scenes in India and on the streets of Copenhagen were beautifully filmed!
5. The Constant Gardener (Kenya and some in the Sudan): This movie was directed by Fernando Meirelles, who directed City of God and it has the same sort of powerful shots of a country and its people. It's about a man who is trying to discover why his wife was murdered.
6. The Graduate (California, USA): One of the reasons I liked this film was because of its funny (and pretty accurate) depiction of the southern California suburbs and SoCal culture. It's about a recent college grad (a really young Dustin Hoffman) who is having an affair with a married woman and then starts to fall for her daughter, who's about his age.
7. Cinema Paradiso (Italy): I saw this movie when I was younger and immediately wanted to learn Italian and go to Italy to study (ok, it was partly because some of the guys in the film were so good looking). The movie was about a filmmaker's childhood in a small Sicilian village and all the time he spent at the village movie theater.
8. Hero (China): I picked this one over House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon because I liked how the story is told four times (through different eyes) using four distinct color schemes and lots of shots of the Chinese landscapes. It takes place before the reign of China's first emperor when a king is waging a bloody campaign to conquer the land. He has been targeted by three assassins, but then he hears someone has killed them for him. He asks the man to come to his palace to recount what supposedly happened.
9. Love Actually (England): This has a great ensemble cast! It's about various aspects of love as seen through different character's eyes during the holiday season in London (which looks very pretty and festive and reminded me of a Christmas I spent there). Plus it features Rodrigo Santoro!
10. The Departed (Boston, Mass): I was having a tough time picking my final film, but I'm going with the Departed because I thought it really captured some of the neighborhoods of Boston, the character of the city and the Irish-Americans who live there. It's about two guys from opposite sides of the law who go undercover in the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia. Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg have some of the world's best lines in this film too.