China Moon

China Moon is a crime mystery set in a small Florida town, where detective Kyle Bodine falls for Rachel Munro, a wealthy married woman whose husband treats her badly. When a confrontation at home ends with the husband dead, Kyle agrees to help conceal what happened rather than treat it as a case. He then finds himself leading the investigation, while his partner Lamar Dickey turns out to be far sharper at picking up clues than Kyle expected. What follows is a tangle of lies, betrayal and suspicion, with the evidence pointing toward Kyle himself.

John Bailey directed the film, marking the first of the two features he directed in his career, having spent years as a cinematographer; Roy Carlson wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Carol Kim and Barrie M. Osborne for Orion Pictures and Tig Productions. Ed Harris plays Kyle, with Madeleine Stowe as Rachel, Charles Dance as her husband Rupert, Benicio del Toro as Lamar Dickey, and Patricia Healy and Tim Powell in supporting roles.

Released in March 1994, the film runs 99 minutes. Against a budget of about 15 million dollars, it took roughly 3 million worldwide, a poor return. On IMDb it holds 6.3 out of 10 from around 9,200 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.1 from a much smaller base of 153 ratings. A critics' score of 5.3 from 10 reviews places it close to the audience verdict, so neither critics nor viewers rated it highly.