Kim
Kim is the main character in Miss Saigon. She is a seventeen year old Vietnamese girl who hopes to go to America when the Vietnam War breaks out. She is also in love with a soldier named Chris and works in a bar/club called Dreamland.
We first see Kim as an orphan. Her village has just been burned and both her parents are dead. She is found by an engineer who makes her work in his club, Dreamland, as a bar girl. In the bar her first night, she meets a GI named Chris and seems to develop a liking for him.
Chris's best friend John "buys" Kim for his friend that night and Chris also discovers a liking for her. When she wakes up in the morning, he tries to pay her but she refuses, then they confess their love for each other.
Kim and Chris get "married" a few days later with an old custom of the Vietnam families. Suddenly Kim's fiancee, Thuy, enters the scene. Kim and Thuy were promised to marry at thirteen but Kim did not love Thuy. Chris pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot him. When Thuy leaves he promises Kim that he'll protect her for the rest of her life and that he'll take her to America with him.
Fast-forward three years. Chris has returned to America without Kim (beause the soldiers wouldn't let any Vietnamese on the helicopters) so Kim is still in Saigon. She is dreaming of Chris. Meanwhile, back in America, Chris has been married to someone else, Ellen, and she speaks of how Chris keeps having bad dreams because of his experience in the Vietnam War. Back in Saigon, Thuy discovers Kim and also discovers that she has Chris's child. He tries to kill the child, Tam, but Kim kills him first and then tells Tam about how she'll give her life for him.
John, Chris's best friend, finds out about Tam and tells Chris, who then returns to Saigon with Ellen to find Kim. Meanwhile, Kim hears about Chris returning and knows for sure that she'll go to America with her "husband." She goes off to find him and runs into Ellen, who tells her that Chris is already married to her. Kim is devastated and runs off.
When Chris returns to his hotel, Ellen tells him everything that happened. He told Ellen that she's his wife and that he'll always love her. He thens goes out to search for Kim again. Meanwhile, Kim is dressing Tam nicely, knowing that he'll soon meet his father. She then hears Chris coming, sends Tam out to greet him...and shoots herself.
Chris realizes what Kim has done and runs into the room, where she renews her vow of love for him and then dies in his arms.
Return to my Miss Saigon page
Return to the main page