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The Debt Collector (2026) · ⭐⭐ (2/5)

Dir. Surapong Ploensang · Starring Nadech Kugimiya, Nuanprang Trichit, Daou Pittaya Saechua · 134 min · Thai

Streaming: Netflix

*

The setup: Num (Nadech Kugimiya) is a former brutal debt collector who goes to prison for 10 years after accidentally killing a young girl. Released with a terminal brain tumor and a few months to live, he tries to go straight as a delivery man — only to get dragged back into the underworld he left behind when he defends an elderly woman and her granddaughter from violent loan sharks. The old woman dies, the child is burned, and Num goes full John Wick on the syndicate.

The verdict: below average. So much wasted potential.

The premise is genuinely compelling. A guilt-ridden ex-enforcer with a death sentence racing against time to do one good thing before he dies? That's the kind of setup that should write itself. And the first act delivers — Ploensang establishes Num's world with raw, visceral direction. The opening debt collection scene at the boxing gym is tight. Nadech Kugimiya's laconic presence works. For about 40 minutes, you think you're watching something special.

Then the screenplay unravels.

The second act hits the brakes hard. Instead of keeping the revenge engine humming, the film dissolves into exposition-heavy flashbacks of young Num at an orphanage, a co-protagonist cop named Kong whose subplot adds nothing but runtime, and a web of corruption threads that never quite connect. At 134 minutes, this is a movie that should have been 100. Every scene in the middle hour feels like it's treading water, and the revenge plot — the actual reason you showed up — gets buried under character backstory nobody asked for.

The action is the other letdown. Ploensang's direction aims for grounded realism, and there are moments where the fight choreography lands — Num's knife work is brutal and efficient. But Nadech Kugimiya, despite his screen presence, doesn't sell the physicality. He moves through action scenes like a model doing a photoshoot rather than a man fighting for survival. Compare this to Tony Jaa or Iko Uwais in their prime — the difference between someone who can act and someone who can fight. Nadech is pretty, but the action needs a beast.

The emotional core — Num's guilt over the dead girl, his bond with Grandma Lek and Noi — is the best part of the film. There's a genuine moment when Lek distances herself from Num after learning his past, and a child can see good where the adult sees only sin. That's real writing. But it's surrounded by so much filler and generic revenge plotting that the emotional beats barely register.

Bottom line: The Debt Collector is a movie that knows what it wants to be but doesn't commit hard enough. The premise deserves a lean 95-minute revenge thriller. Instead, you get 134 minutes of a first act that slaps, a second act that drags, and an action lead who looks better in stills than in motion. Disappointing.

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