Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Surapong Ploensang, ‘The Debt Collector,’ also known as ‘Khon Dueat Thuang Khaen,’ revolves around Num, a skilled fighter who is haunted by his bloody past working with loan sharks. After spending a lot of time in prison, a terminal diagnosis tells him that he has very little time left, and it must be used carefully. However, Num interprets this countdown very differently and begins an all-out rampage against the very loan sharks and enforcers that he once worked for and with. By the end of this Thai action thriller movie, Num finds himself with a radically different outlook on life, and that effect is rippled across the psyches of the people whose fates he impacts, for better and for worse. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Debt Collector Plot Synopsis
‘The Debt Collector’ begins with Num, the eponymous enforcer, storming into a boxing facility that is long overdue for its loan payments. Despite several well-trained boxers charging at once, Num doesn’t have a hard time gaining the upper hand, until it’s only the manager who’s left. Though Num plans to let the man go with a warning this once, the moment he turns back, the manager whips out a pistol, forcing Num to shoot back his own. However, a piercing shriek of a woman then fills the entire room, causing Num to freeze in horror. From there, the story jumps 10 years into the future, revealing that Num is now in prison. However, when he is suddenly diagnosed with a late-stage brain tumor and told that he has about a month to live, a compassionate release is in order.
A free man once again, Num chooses a humble lifestyle, spending his days as a pick-up driver. On one such occasion, he comes across a small eatery run by an elderly woman, who is helped by her little granddaughter, Nid Noi. Though Num quickly develops a bond with them, the arrival of some aggressive loan sharks changes the tone of the scene entirely. Instead of jumping straight to violence, however, Num tries to resolve the situation by paying on behalf of the elderly woman, not realizing that this is just the start of their sorrows. When the loan sharks return the following day, Num decides to fight back and beats them all up with little ease. However, this riles up the leader of the sharks, Po, and that very night, he locks the woman and her granddaughter in their house, before burning it down.
When Num wakes up the following day to learn that the elderly woman passed away and that her granddaughter is fighting for her life, rage takes over. As it turns out, Num used to work for Po’s mother, Madam Nin, a decade ago, but turned himself in after he accidentally shot a child on that fateful day. This time, he spares no mercy and vows to kill Po by any means necessary. Though Madam Nin takes quite a number of steps, even employing a police officer named Kong to discreetly deal with the situation, fate catches up with her. As it turns out, Kong and Num grew up in the same orphanage, and it doesn’t take them long to team up, even when faced with the moles within the police force.
The Debt Collector Ending: Is Num Dead? Does He Defeat Po?
‘The Debt Collector’ ends with Num succumbing to his injuries, but not before he kills Po and his accomplices, taking revenge for the death of Nid Noi’s grandmother. After reawakening at the hospital, Num likely realizes that this is going to be the end of the line, and instead of weakening him, it only takes off all limiters. Undeterred, Num sneaks into Madam Nin’s mansion and wipes out her entire guarding force, before standing face to face with the matriarch herself. In an ironic finish, it is now Madam Nin begging for the life of her son, not unlike what Po put Nid Noi’s grandmother through not long ago. Num, however, shows no mercy as he walks away with Po’s location, and Madam Nin, attempting to stab him in the back, misses and falls to her own death.
With doctors confirming that Num has less than a month left to live, the question of his death was never about if, but rather when and how. Instead of quietly dying in prison, Num chooses to get out and spend his remaining days living in good spirits. Fighting back against the very system that built him, however, has a lot more to it than just taking the right stance, as it becomes a redemption arc for Num. Years back, he turned himself in after being unable to bear the weight of killing a child. And years later, that guilt still manifests anew in the form of Po, a scion of the loan shark business Num himself created. Though he spent much of his youth forcing people to pay up, it always came at the cost of a struggling family, which is something Num only now comes to empathize with.
Rebelling against Madam Nin and her enforcers, Num makes his way to a secluded neighborhood, where Po has promised everyone a debt waiver if they can bring Num down. In yet another tragic turn of fate, circumstances mold ordinary people into fighters for the narrative, and while Num, with some help from Kong, is able to defeat all of them, it is far from a heroic battle. Fittingly, the climax takes the shape of a hide-and-seek game, as Po desperately tries to slip into corners and out of Num’s sight, but to no avail. Though he tries every trick in the book, even using a child as a shield at one point, it is ultimately the girl’s father who gives Num that last-second push to take Po down for good. As the girl walks up to a dying Num, he looks up with a slight sense of relief, having redeemed himself in some part.
Does Nid Noi Survive Her Burn Injuries?
After Num’s death, the story jumps forward in time a bit, revealing that Nid Noi, the little kid who received severe burns in the arson incident at the start, miraculously survives. Despite her grandmother’s tragic passing, not all hope is lost for the little girl, as it appears that she finds her support system in the form of Officer Kong. In the final shot of the film, we see the two of them head out on a boat to disperse Num’s ashes into the river, bidding him a collective goodbye in memory of what he achieved with his dying breaths. While this was partly a mission to avenge the deaths and injustices caused by Po and Madam Nin’s criminal enterprise, Num was also motivated by the very fact that Nid Noi survived and must return to a world free of the horrors that got her to this point.
Now, as Nid Noi walks out of the hospital, there will be no one targeting her for loan repayment, nor anyone harassing her for what she does with her future. Instead, she has the support of a renewed police force that is sympathetic to her journey, and not secretly bankrolled by Madam Nin herself. Much like the girl whom Num saves at the end, Nid Noi becomes emblematic of a generation of children that Num has protected from a worse fate. The parallels are especially strong since Nid Noi is also an orphan, just like him, who has been working since her childhood. Now, hopefully, a better future awaits her, indicating that Num’s efforts to reshape reality haven’t been in vain.
What Happens to Kong? Will He Quit the Police?
Though Kong is rewarded for his police work, by the end of ‘The Debt Collector,’ he seems wholly disenchanted with the life he once craved. Standing by the riverside, he throws away the award he’s received for bringing down the city’s loan shark network, as he realizes that it wasn’t him, but Num, who did all of the hard work. The fact that most of the police officers turn out to be in cahoots with Po and company only amplifies the fact that this is a systemic fault at large, that Num somehow pierced into singlehandedly. Far from being recognized for this, however, Num becomes a target for the police, and stays that way even after his death, never being remembered for his redemptive efforts.
While it’s unlikely that Kong will quit the force outright, it does seem that life has opened up a lot of opportunities for him to embody the change he wishes to see. To begin with, doctors confirm that his infant daughter won’t need surgery for the hole in her heart, as it seems to be healing on its own. With this, a huge chunk of the monetary burden weighing on the shoulders of Kong and his partner is now gone. Chances are that going forward, he will personally take care of Nid Noi, while simultaneously correcting the police force’s many wrongs. Though Num dies after doing the impossible, it is now up to those who live to ensure that the cycle is never restarted.
Read More: Where Was The Debt Collector Filmed?
