Separation and Sacrifice
The silence of this woman stunned by her grief was a shout of pain louder than any of the earth's laments. The child's tears were the final condemnation of all wars which shatter people who love each other.
The little Vietnamese girl was about to board a plane from Ho Chi Minh Airport for the United States of America where her father, and ex-GI she had never seen, was waiting for her. Her mother was leaving her there and would never see her again.
Behind this particular picture lay a background of years of enquiries and bureaucratic formalities, in order to find the ex-solider from the other side of the world, with whom the woman had shared a brief moment of her life.
She knew, as only a mother could that beyond this departure gate there was both a new life for her daughter and no life at all for her, and that she had willed it.
This photograph of deliberate ripping apart of mother and child, the most staggering example of ‘The Ultimate Sacrifice’, was the start of everything for Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the creators of Miss Saigon.
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Miss Saigon - The Musical
Set in 1975 during the final days of the American occupation of Saigon, Miss Saigon is an epic love story about the relationship between an American GI and a young Vietnamese woman.
Kim is working in a sleazy Saigon night club owned by a notorious wheeler-dealer known as 'The Engineer'. John, an American GI, buys his friend Chris the services of Kim for the night. That night will change their lives forever.
Three years later, the US Army has fled Saigon. Chris has returned to America and is now married to Ellen, an American woman. He believes that Kim is dead. However Kim has left Saigon and is living in poverty with her three year old son, Tam in Bangkok. Chris finds out that Kim is alive and has bore him a son and so returns to Asia in search of Kim and Tam.
When Kim learns that Chris is in Bangkok with his new wife all her hopes to be reunited with him disappear. She is desperate for her son to have a future in America with his father and will make the ultimate sacrifice to achieve this.
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I'd Give My Life For You
Sung by Kim to Tum
You who I cradled in my arms
You asking as little as you can
Little snip of a little man
I know i'd give my life for you
You didn't ask me to be born
You, why should you learn of war or pain?
To make sure you're not hurt again
I swear I'd give my life for you
I've tasted love beyond all fear
And you should know it's love that brought you hear
And in one perfect night when the stars burned like new,
I knew what I must do
I'll give you a million things I'll never own
I'll give you a world to conquer when you're grown
You will be who you want to be
You can choose whatever heaven grants
As long as you can have your chance
I swear I'll give my life for you
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Source : Miss Saigon official website at www.miss-saigon.com