Sean Parker
Taiwanese horror has been making serious waves over the last few years, with films like The Sadness, Detention, and Incantation tearing up Western streaming charts. One film in particular, The Tag-Along, became the highest-grossing Taiwanese horror film of all time back in 2015, before being dethroned by Incantation in 2022. The Tag-Along, based on the urban legend known as “The Little Girl in Red,” has gone on to produce two ghostly sequels and frighten millions all over the globe. So, why in an article about Chia-Ying Tsai’s Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo would I be talking so much about The Tag-Along? Well, let’s get into that after a quick synopsis.
Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo tells the story of Jia-ming (Jasper Liu) and Yu-xin (Angela Yuen), a couple who got together after the loss of their friend An-wei (Tsao Yu-ning) during a hiking trip in the mountains years ago. Jia-ming has his heart set on asking Yu-xin the big question on this hike, but her thoughts continue to drift toward An-wei, who was her boyfriend prior to disappearing in the mountains. Reluctant to introduce his question about their future, Jia-ming becomes resentful of their consistent trips. Though they’ve grown closer, he knows there’s a chasm between them, and its name is An-wei. Growing weary of everything at this point, Jia-ming decides he wants to go.
Quickly, Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo becomes very atmospheric, with fog beginning to roll in (both natural and some effects work), and the couple find themselves lost in the woods. Odd, considering how often they’ve trekked through them, but anyone can get turned around. They see a man in a yellow raincoat telling them to follow him, but when they do, everything begins to get strange. Yu-xin is feeling the effects too, appearing glassy-eyed and absent-minded, walking toward the edge of a high rock. Though Jia-ming saves her at the very last moment, her safety is far from intact. Later that evening, he’ll watch Yu-xin die and begin living the day over and over again, watching helplessly as she repeatedly suffers a similar fate each time around.
The only way for this couple to break the cycle may come in the form of a shaman at a temple. See, when the three friends went up the mountain several years earlier, they disturbed an ancient ritual, setting this vicious curse in motion. Now, they must find out what they need to do to make it to tomorrow, even if it comes at the cost of their relationship.
Now, Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo is from producer Shin-Chi Chen, who also produced The Tag-Along, and it seems pretty fitting since Haunted Mountains acts like another chapter in an urban legend showcase. The Tag-Along viewers see a little girl dressed in red as the vengeful spirit following them, and it’s based on an actual incident from the ‘90s of a couple hiking who noticed a little girl in red in their pictures, though no one recalls her presence during the hike. In The Tag-Along’s third entry, The Devil Fish, the story is switched up to incorporate a different tale, one about three men who catch and grill a fish that brings misfortune and possession with it.
Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo feels like the next entry in the horrorverse of Taiwanese urban legends. Covering the Yushan Xiaofeixia (Yushan Peter Pan), the legend is about a group of yellow rainjacket-wearing ghosts who are said to be the spirits of those who’ve gone missing on Yushan (Jade Mountain), Taiwan’s highest peak, while wearing their yellow slickers. This, too, is another recent myth, said to have also originated in the ‘90s, and that myth informs scenes in the film, like the ghostly knocking on the door seen in the film’s introduction. These spirits are said to be often seen at the site of tragic events.
However, Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo goes a step further, though, in being slightly more like The Tag-Along. Aside from its ghost story, there’s a chronicle of a relationship that’s not going anywhere, and certain recurrent themes between the two films, such as people marrying later and, by that measure, putting off having children, subtly reside in the subtext. So, while we’re reeling at the shocks in the foreground, the film is making an interesting social commentary. But while it works for The Tag-Along, I had trouble believing Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo wasn’t just a retread of the same material from ten years ago in a different colored suit.
Director Chia-Ying Tsai does do a few things differently, as there are new mechanics to consider in Wan-Zhen Zou’s script. Specifically, there’s a lot more about not being emotionally ready for commitment, which is shown through the obvious burden Yu-xin is carrying, and Ja-shin’s anxious jealousy only makes it more evident that, while he loves her, he’s a bit self-centered. I mean, after five years of watching his partner carry a torch for a guy that isn’t him, maybe you’d be wishing she’d move on, too. There’s certainly more to it than just that as the plot continues, but those details seem to highlight more reasons for Jia-ming to want to keep Yu-xin at a distance.
The Groundhog Day respawn, which Jia-ming must traumatically endure day after day, is met fantastically as the film unfolds. Tsai sets up these wonderful little contrasts between the scenes. In one, the heavy greens of the moss on the trees and the muted tones of the gray, foggy day seem much brighter in comparison to Jia-ming’s dark reawakening by a drip of rainwater from the ceiling. These transitions can be exceptionally jarring, whereas most of the other scares are done through impressive sound design and jumpscare imagery.
As for the digital effects, I have some issues. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good, but the ghosts have a look that seems like they belong in a movie like House on Haunted Hill or Feardotcom, effects we know we’ve surpassed in the last twenty to twenty-five years. Perhaps it’s some sort of homage. This urban legend’s origins coincide with the release of these films, meaning it could be plausible.
However, my biggest gripe with Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo is that it’s just messy as hell. We begin with a cold open, events that the audience will later understand, but aren’t definitively explained to the viewer. Then, we’re introduced to the main characters with all of this backstory that isn’t supplied right away, leading to events that just seem too absurd to grasp, like a romantic proposal on a mountain this couple has climbed for five years… while looking for one of their ex-lovers. Bet it’ll be fun for the fiancé to reveal that little tidbit to her friends while showing off the ring. The film then alternates between past and present to reveal the entire story.
I just found Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo to be very templated. I knew where we were going and didn’t have any real expectations, but, given the imagery and the rich state of Taiwanese horror, I was hoping the experience would be a little more original and pack a heavier punch, instead the movie plays like a backwards whodunnit, where you have the people, but you need to figure out the clues. There is some fun in deciphering the more intricate aspects of the plot, but for the most part, the movie isn’t anything you haven’t already seen before. Obviously, if you’ve seen The Tag-Along, it’s very much in the same vein, but I think audiences will ultimately be mixed here.
Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo played at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival on Saturday, July 26, with an encore showing planned for Wednesday, July 30. Check out the film’s page on the Fantasia website for more information.
【山忌 黃衣小飛俠】正式預告 (6/6 全台戲院上映)
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