John Woo’s Red Cliff is hardly a new film with the first part released in Asia in 2008, and the second part at the beginning of 2009. On Nov. 18, the 280 minute epic film will appear in American theaters for the first time as a single 150 minute film. With the content cut nearly in half, the story will be much more easily digestible by Western audiences…but is it really worth watching?

I invested nearly five hours in watching Red Cliff as it was meant to be seen, and I assure you, dear reader: I have never in my life seen a more incredible war movie than Red Cliff. I used to think that no war movie could touch me like Tae Guk Gi, but Red Cliff simply blew it out of the water in every respect. It is an incredibly passionate retelling of the historical events immediately preceding the well-known Three Kingdoms period, on which the popular video game franchise Dynasty Warriors is based.

I’ve always said that I hated war movies and refused to watch them, until Tae Guk Gi. I then told myself that I would never enjoy another war movie again, but committed to watching Red Cliff due to my interest in Chinese history. I spent the majority of the movie being shocked by how touched I was by the story and how thoroughly I enjoyed the intense, beautifully filmed combat scenes and mind-blowing military strategy by Zhuge Liang, who was played by Takeshi Kaneshiro. I never thought I’d be hot for a historical figure, but Takeshi Kaneshiro made it happen with his incredible performance as the famous military strategist.

To say that the movie was enjoyable would be an understatement. It moved me- and I can’t stand the thought of it being sliced in half for the sake of being more palatable to Americans. An entire storyline was removed from the film, as well as several other powerful scenes. The first part of the film was cut brutally short, with most of the scenes significantly reduced in length– in other words, the action was abbreviated. In the case of most films, I wouldn’t make a fuss about this, but Red Cliff is the exception. The combat scenes are an absolute feast for the eyes and far from mindless gore.

I admit that I’m tempted to take my friends to watch Red Cliff in theaters, just to see the action on the big screen, but my feelings about the American release can be summed up as follows:

If you don’t have the patience to sit through four and a half hours of the most incredible war movie ever made, then by all means go see Hollywood’s cut of the film. Know that you’ll be missing out on 50% of the movie, which means 50% of the awesome. For the other 50%, you’ll have to import the real deal.

Red Cliff hits select theaters Wednesday, Nov. 18 followed by a wide release on Wednesday, Nov. 25. For more information visit the official site here.