THE AVAILABILITY HISTORY
Edward Yang's films were effectively unavailable to most international viewers for two decades after they were made. The rights situation was complicated. Proper transfers didn't exist. There was no champion with the distribution infrastructure to force the issue. The result was one of the most significant bodies of work in cinema history sitting in a kind of formal obscurity - known to festival programmers and film scholars, inaccessible to the cinephile wanting to watch at home.
The situation changed significantly with the Criterion restorations, beginning with Yi Yi in 2015 and followed by A Brighter Summer Day in 2015. These restorations - produced from original camera negatives where they survived, supervised by people who cared about getting them right - are the correct versions to watch. The bootleg and substandard transfers that circulated before the restorations gave many viewers a false impression of Yang's visual style. The Criterion versions look like different films, which they effectively are.
WHERE TO FIND YANG IN THE UK RIGHT NOW
MUBI UK: The most complete streaming home for the Yang filmography in the UK. Yi Yi, A Brighter Summer Day, The Terrorizer, and That Day, On the Beach are all accessible there as of 2026, though availability rotates. MUBI's permanent collection is more stable than the rotating thirty; the Yang films tend to appear there. Check current availability before planning a viewing session - a film present this month may have rotated off.
The permanent collection versus rotating catalogue distinction matters for Yang specifically. Yi Yi and A Brighter Summer Day are the films most worth catching on any given day they're available. Don't let them sit in your watchlist for weeks.
PHYSICAL MEDIA - THE CORRECT VERSIONS
The Criterion Collection editions are the definitive versions of the Yang filmography. Yi Yi (spine 685) and A Brighter Summer Day (spine 750) have been released in Blu-ray editions with the best available transfers and substantial supplementary materials - essays, interviews, archival documents. Both are available from Criterion directly and ship internationally.
The supplementary materials on both Criterion editions are worth the physical purchase independently of the films themselves. The essay included with Yi Yi is among the best available critical writing on Yang in English. The interview materials in the A Brighter Summer Day edition provide the most complete account of the film's production and the historical research that underpinned it.
THE STREAMING VERSUS PHYSICAL QUESTION
For Yang specifically: watch the films on MUBI if you need to establish whether they're worth the investment, and buy the Criterion editions of the ones that warrant it - which, after watching, will probably be both. The MUBI versions are excellent; the Criterion editions are better. For a filmmaker whose visual grammar requires the detail the best transfer can provide, the physical edition matters more than it does for most.
WHAT ORDER TO WATCH
Yi Yi is the correct entry point. It requires no prior knowledge of Yang or Taiwanese cinema and makes a complete formal argument on its own terms. Three hours. Watch it when you have an afternoon free with no competing claims on your attention.
After Yi Yi: A Brighter Summer Day - the most structurally ambitious film in the catalogue, four hours, requires the patience Yi Yi has built. Then The Terrorizer for the formal breakthrough. Then Taipei Story for the historical context and the Hou Hsiao-hsien collaboration. That four-film sequence covers the essential Yang.
IS THERE AN EDWARD YANG STREAMING SERVICE?
No. As of 2026, there is no platform specifically dedicated to Yang's work. MUBI is the closest thing - it has the most complete and highest-quality streaming access to the Yang filmography in the UK - but it's a general world cinema platform rather than a Yang-specific one.
What there is: a Criterion Channel in the US (not accessible in the UK) with a curated Yang collection; Criterion physical editions for home ownership; and MUBI UK as the primary accessible streaming platform. Between MUBI's rotating catalogue and its permanent collection, most of the Yang filmography is accessible to a UK viewer willing to check availability and not defer watching indefinitely.
The Criterion versions look like different films, which they effectively are.