Yi Yi 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Yi Yi 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 17, 2026

Edward Yang's "Yi Yi" (2000) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary with Edward Yang and critic Tony Rayns, an archival program with Tony Rayns, and an original trailer. In Mandarin and English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Edward Yang’s Yi Yi begins with a large wedding ceremony where the viewer is introduced to a middle-class family from Taipei, their relatives and friends, and the friends of their friends. Not long after that, the oldest member of the family has a stroke and goes into a coma. The doctor warns that everyone should prepare for the worst.

NJ (Wu Nienjen, writer, A City of Sadness) is the head of the family. He is married to Min-Min (Elaine Jin, The Soong Sisters) and they have two children: a beautiful teenage girl named Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee) and a curious little boy called Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang). They see each other only when they occasionally gather around the table for dinner; most of the time, they are scattered all over Taipei.

NJ is at a point in his life where he has hardly any ambitions left. At work, he feels useless because his former partners have become egoists obsessed with profit. He understands why -- the world has changed for the worse, and people have begun to adapt. At home, it seems like he has everything a married man would want, but he isn’t happy.

Like NJ, Min-Min feels jaded. She loves her family, but needs a long break from it. She also senses that NJ is slowly drifting away from her, but is unsure if it is because of another woman or because their relationship has simply matured.

Ting-Ting has been trying to help her best friend get back with her boyfriend (Yupang Chang). But when he approaches her, she makes a surprising move, one that she has no one to discuss with.

Little Yang-Yang is fascinated with the world around him. He has just discovered that there is a lot he can see that his parents and friends cannot -- like the back of their heads, or the tiny mosquitoes flying around, or how the water in the nearby pool changes its colors when he jumps in it. To help them see what he can see, Yang-Yang buys a small camera and begins taking pictures.

Yi Yi has a very unusual structure. On one hand, it is a fascinating portrait of a family whose members face a number of different dilemmas. Without exception, they deal with them on their own and eventually discover that even though their lives are interconnected, their worlds are not.

On the other hand, Yi Yi is also a film about a city in transition. Globalization has reached Taipei and started eroding old perceptions of morality and business. For example, NJ’s encounter with a Japanese businessman (Issey Ogata, Tony Takitani), who he believes is the right type of person with the right product that could help his battered company recover, is particularly illuminating about the new social and business climate that has emerged in director Yang’s home city.

Translated into English, the title of the film refers to "individuality", which is the key element that ties the loose ends of the narrative. Indeed, Yi Yi is a rather big slice of life in which various characters, as well as their beloved Taipei, have realized that they must adapt on their own.

*In 2000, Yi Yi won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival. A year later, it also won the Best Film Award at the National Society of Film Critics Awards.

Yi Yi 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's release of Yi Yi is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-24 are taken from the 4K Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #29-40 are taken from the Blu-ray.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this release:

"Undertaken by Pony Canyon Inc., the new 4K restoration on the 4K Blu-ray disc was created from the 35mm original camera negative. The original 2.0 surround soundtrack was remastered from the 2-track LtRt magnetic master. Please be sure to enable Dolby ProLogic decoding on your receiver toproperly play the 2.0 surround soundtrack. The 5.0 surround soundtrack was remastered from the original Hi8 tapes and approved by Kaili Peng.

Mastering supervisor: Kaili Peng.
Colorist: Noboru Yamaguchi, Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc.
Image Restoration: Imafica Entertainment Media Services, Inc.
Audio restoration: Tu Duu-chih.

In America, Yi Yi made its high-definition debut with this Blu-ray release, also produced by Criterion, in 2011. It is the only other release of Yi Yi that I have in my library.

The original Blu-ray release offered a pretty good presentation of the film. However, it was sourced from a master with several obvious limitations. For example, grain exposure was not ideal because of various digital adjustments. Also, in some areas, it was easy to spot harsher edges. The new 4K restoration of the film, which is featured only on the 4K Blu-ray, produces significantly healthier, much better-balanced visuals that can look rather impressive on a large screen. (For what it's worth, just the improvements in grain exposure ensure far more pleasing visuals). All visuals now have superior density levels as well. Unfortunately, the new 4K restoration also alters color settings that were perfectly fine on the previous release. The changes are of the type that, sadly, are common on many recent and new 4K masters, where the native identity of the film is replaced with a contemporary one. Here, the changes range from small to moderate, but there are numerous examples where certain sequences/visuals no longer look as they should. The biggest color shifts are from blue to turquoise and gray to turquoise, but other ranges of supporting nuances are destabilized as well. The previous presentation of the film, which is retained on the Blu-ray included with this combo pack, was sourced from a 35mm interpositive, so there should not be any speculating as to where the proper color values are. But even without a reference source, the shifts and their nature are very easy to identify. For example, you can see how grays were shifted to turquoise if you compare this screencapture and this. You can also see how gray and blues are shifted to turquoise if you compare this screencapture and this screencapture. The most notable changes introduced by the altered supporting nuances can affect saturation levels. You can see an example if you compare this screencapture and this screencapture. The new 4K restoration cannot be viewed with Dolby Vision or HDR grades, so the comparisons above provide pretty accurate examples of the various shifts and adjustments in color temperature. Ideally, I would have liked to have the healthier, stronger visuals of the new 4K restoration combined with the color values of the previous presentation. Finally, in several areas, the darker indoor footage produces visuals with an unconvincing dynamic range. As a result, native detail is lost, and there is actually slightly more to see in the older presentation of the film.

Yi Yi 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this release: Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The original Blu-ray release of Yi Yi had only the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, so I revisited the film in native 4K with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 track. The mass footage from the big wedding celebration and a few more areas where Kaili Peng's music does some specific things are the places where I thought the new 5.0 track successfully opens up the film. In terms of dynamic intensity, I think viewers will find the 2.0 and 5.0 tracks to be equally effective, which should not be surprising because there isn't any carefully mixed action footage. All exchanges sounded very clear, sharp, and easy to follow. The English translation is excellent.

Yi Yi 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this very archival audio commentary recorded by Edward Yang and critic Tony Rayns initially appeared on Criterion's DVD release of Yi Yi.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this very archival audio commentary recorded by Edward Yang and critic Tony Rayns initially appeared on Criterion's DVD release of Yi Yi.

• Tony Rayns - In this archival program, Tony Rayns discusses the New Taiwan Cinema, its most notable directors, and the work of Edward Yang. In English, not subtitled. (16 min).

• Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for Yi Yi. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Booklet - 20-page illustrated booklet featuring Kent Jones' essay "Time and Space" and notes from Edward Yang (reprinted from the original press note for the film's 2000 release).

Yi Yi 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you have the original Blu-ray release of Yi Yi, you already have the most faithful presentation of the film. However, it is a presentation that reveals limitations, which were obvious even in 2011. The combo pack release introduces a new 4K restoration, featured only on the 4K Blu-ray, which is a substantially healthier presentation of the film. However, this presentation has been tweaked to give the film a more contemporary appearance. All things considered, and there are quite a few, I think that the new presentation is tolerable, but the 4K restoration should have produced the definitive presentation of the film.