In order to approach correctly the several Kung-Fu classics film-director Chang Cheh made in the first half of the 70's, one must be aware he was a sort of Chinese Sam Peckimpah: in that his male heroes always are outcasts who dies fighting against the evil. FOUR RIDERS is another excellent example of this poetic theme, even if not as good as VENGEANCE! (1970) or DUEL OF THE IRON FISTS (1971). Chang Cheh puts together his usual ensemble of actors from his heydays, former Kung-Fu champion Chen Kuan Tai, the golden duo David Chiang-Ti Lung, the sidekick Wang Chung, all four playing chineses war vets after the Korea's war who don't have a place in civil life. One of them is framed by a gang of drug traffikers and so the others end up involved in a deadly battle with no happy ending. The setting is Seoul but the mixing between the on-location scenes and the usual Shaw Bros' scenographic reconstructions is goofy, as well as the haircuts and dressing are typical 70's fare instead of 50's. Aside this flaw, the movie works thanks the charm of the cast and the good action coreography courtesy by the future legend director Lau Kar Leung (helped by his colleagues Tang Chia). The final massacre where everybody dies (except the big boss played by Kurata, arrested by the military police) is all in all pure Chang Cheh, in that his pessimistic look clearly points out the four soldiers are modern incarnations of the moral code of the ancient chinese warriors, as demonstrated by the first scene (four guys arriving in the snowy country) and the last one (the same four leave in the snowy country) plus an elegiac slow-moving scene of four ancient chinese warriors galloping away). Blink and you miss future superstar Alexander Fu Sheng as one of the soldiers in the nightclub.
