The second of three programmes that look at the role of wild animals in Japanese life, art and religion.
The Bird of Happiness
For centuries the Japanese crane has been a symbol of happiness and long life. In modem Japan the symbol lives on - but has the living bird a future?
Follow the fate of these beautiful and stately birds from the threatened marshes where the last pairs breed to the wintering-grounds where cranes are fed and cherished by local people. And through the cranes is told a wider story - of the Japanese attitude to nature with, to a Westerner, all its contradictions.
Narrator Peter France Film editor CHARLES DA VIES Produced for
THE MOVING PICTURE COMPANY by DAVID COBHAM
BBCtv presentation by PELHAM ALDRICH-BLAKE
Series editor PETER JONES BBC Bristol
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