Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Zero to Hero’ on Netflix, an Inspiring Biopic Of So Wa Wai, Hong Kong’s First Paralympic Gold Medalist

So Wa Wai might not be a household name outside of Hong Kong, but he probably should be. The focus of Zero To Hero, a biopic that’s just landed on Netflix, we learn about his inspiring life story. Born in poverty and with cerebral palsy, he became one of the world’s top Paralympians, winning 12 medals in a career that spanned from 1996 to 2012. This feature-length movie tells the story of how he and his mother overcame adversity and reached international glory.

ZERO TO HERO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: When he was just a small child, it seemed as though So Wa Wai might never walk; born with cerebral palsy, he didn’t walk until he was four years old; his mother fought for him, but knew that his life would be a struggle. He didn’t just learn to walk, though—he learned to run, faster than almost anyone, becoming Hong Kong’s first Paralympic medalist and a 12-time medalist over a career spanning three decades. Zero To Hero tells the story of So and his mother, and it’s Hong Kong’s submission to “Best International Feature” for this year’s Academy Awards.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: There’s an unfortunate dearth of movies dealing with the accomplishments of differently-abled athletes—Murderball and Rising Phoenix come to mind—but in structure, this is a very traditional sports biopic; shades of Rudy or Chariots of Fire.

Performance Worth Watching: So is played by three actors over the course of his life story, all of whom do commendable jobs, but the real star here is Hong Kong film legend Sandra Kwan Yue Ng, who plays So’s mother. The star of more than 100 films in a decades-long career, she’s primarily known as a comic actor, but gets to show off her dramatic skills here as she struggles to raise her son.

Memorable Dialogue: “Based on my experience, if he isn’t able to walk at this age yet, his chances of walking are very slim,” a doctor relates to So’s mother when he’s a toddler, providing the appropriate dramatic foreshadowing for the story of his future glories as a runner.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Many of the best sports movies follow a familiar template. First, demonstrate adversity; show the seemingly-impossible circumstances facing the protagonist, girded by the dramatic irony of viewers knowing who they’ll become. Next, show flashes of future talent—the first eye-raising moment when it seems that they’ll buck early expectations. Finally, build to a dramatic crescendo with some important event where they show the whole world who they are. Zero To Hero doesn’t break much new ground in its storytelling, but it presses all of these buttons quite well, and does so in the service of a real-life story that doesn’t need much embellishment.

When we first meet So Wa Wai, he’s a toddler who can’t even walk. Doctors give his mother a sobering prognosis: he may never walk, and his various other disabilities will likely prevent him from living a self-sufficient life. His mother bristles at this notion, rejecting charity from those who might see her and her son as pitiable cases, but she’s despondent nonetheless at her son’s challenges.

He does learn to walk, though, and in that perfect biopic moment where a special skill is first revealed, a teenage So awes his mother by sprinting away from three pursuing bullies, demonstrating an aptitude for running that she encourages him to pursue. He begins a long and frustrating process of training, but eventually enters the Paralympic Games, leading his native Hong Kong to its first-ever medal in the competition.

The film features prominent figures from Hong Kong cinema and has been a box-office success there, and it’s going to be under heavy consideration come awards season, having been submitted as Hong Kong’s entrant in the Oscar’s Best International Feature category.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Zero To Hero doesn’t break any new ground in filmmaking, but it’s a very capably done, inspiring film that stands up well against others in the sports-biopic-melodrama genre.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and internet user who lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, two young children, and a small, loud dog.

Watch Zero To Hero on Netflix