Liat is the beautiful daughter of the Tonkinese woman Bloody Mary in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific . She and the American lieutenant Joseph Cable fall in love, but Cable decides that he cannot marry her because of the reaction his family and friends would have to an interracial marriage once he brought her back to the U.S. Feeling that he has nothing to live for, he goes on a dangerous mission on an adjoining island with French planter Emile de Becque, who has similar problems with his relationship with American nurse Nellie Forbush (she will not marry him because Emile has two Polynesian children). Cable is killed on the mission, and it is left to Nellie, who now regrets her own mistake in refusing Emile, to break the tragic news to Liat. Emile, however, survives the mission and returns home safely to Nellie and his children. Liat has almost no dialogue in South Pacific , and she does not sing. The few words that she does speak are in French. She does, however, perform a dance to the song Happy Talk , sung by Bloody Mary. Liat appears in only a few scenes. Show less «