General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

OCTB (反黑)

OCTB (反黑) is a 30-episode Hong Kong crime web series directed by Sung Boon-Chung (宋本中) and first streamed on Youku on 22 September 2017, starring Jordan Chan (陈小春), Danny Chan Kwok-kwan (陈国坤), and Sam Lee (李灿森) as detectives and triad figures in 1990s Hong Kong.¹ Its English title refers to the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau, the Hong Kong Police unit that investigates triad societies.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	30 episodes, 45 minutes each; crime, action, and drama¹
First broadcast	22 September 2017, on Youku and YouTube¹^•³
Director and writer	Sung Boon-Chung (director and producer); Paul Chung Shing-Yuen (钟盛远), writer¹^•²
Production company	Visual Brothers (影视兄弟有限公司); filmed in Hong Kong¹
Setting	1990s Hong Kong in the years before the 1997 handover, when century-old triad societies move to profit before the change of sovereignty⁴
Lead role	Jordan Chan as Chan Fung-cheung (陈凤翔), a former undercover detective who rejoins the anti-triad unit²
Later reach	Picked up by Netflix; the official channel describes it as the first 4K Hong Kong drama on Netflix, with more than 5 billion cumulative views claimed⁵

Spoilers

Premise and setting

The story follows Chan Fung-cheung, a police detective who spent years undercover in the Wo Hing Sing (和兴盛) triad society. After a major operation destroys the society's leadership, he returns to the police force and works eight years in a desk job before being recalled to the anti-triad unit.⁴ His former protege Cheung Chi-keung (张志强), known as "Cheung" (嚣张) and played by Justin Cheung, has risen to lead the rebuilt society and seeks revenge, believing Chan betrayed him.²^•⁴

The action is set in the 1990s, in the final years of British rule, when several long-established underground societies try to make a large profit before the handover.⁴ As the investigation proceeds, Chan discovers that behind his former protege stands a conspiracy connected to the Political Department (政治部) that threatens to throw Hong Kong into chaos, and he and his colleagues risk their careers to stop a police-triad alliance.⁴ The final episode ends with Cheung arrested and the Political Department investigated and disbanded.⁶

Sequels

A 2024 annual filing by a listed Hong Kong company records collaborations to invest in and co-produce new drama projects including "OCTB Season 2" (反黑2) and "OCTB Season 3" (反黑3).¹⁵ According to a Wen Wei Po report, OCTB 2 took six years to produce, continues the first season's story with Jordan Chan leading the anti-triad team and Danny Chan's character, having left the police force, becoming a society boss, and incorporates substantial real news footage to depict life under British administration.¹⁶

Production and cast

Sung Boon-Chung, the director and producer, spent the 1990s playing minor delinquent roles in Hong Kong gangster films before moving behind the camera; in an interview with Jiemian News he described the project as combining his years on film sets, a tribute to the stuntman and singer Blackie Ko (柯受良), and an ambition to help Jordan Chan move beyond his famous triad-boy screen image.⁷

The cast is built around veteran Hong Kong performers. Alongside Jordan Chan, Danny Chan Kwok-kwan, and Sam Lee, the series features Chan Wai-man (陈惠敏), Ng Chi-hung (吴志雄), Ng Man-tat (吴孟达), Philip Chan, Ken Lo, and many other actors familiar from 1990s Hong Kong crime cinema, with more than forty named cast members listed.⁷^•⁸ The production company, Visual Brothers, was a relatively little-known firm at the time.⁹

Release and reach

The series premiered on Youku on 22 September 2017 as a Hong Kong–mainland co-production, with new episodes posted nightly at midnight on the official YouTube channel.¹^•¹⁰ It was made as a tribute drama for the twentieth anniversary of the Hong Kong handover, and its period setting was chosen to fit that anniversary.¹¹ A trade publication noted that a fully Hong Kong-made drama gaining popularity in mainland China was uncommon, and that OCTB was a successful exception.¹²

After its initial run the series was invited onto Netflix, and the official channel states that it became the first 4K Hong Kong drama on the platform and has accumulated more than 5 billion views worldwide.⁵ Netflix's own description frames it as an undercover detective crossing paths with familiar faces in the mafia underworld during the final years of Britain's rule of Hong Kong.¹³

Reception

Commentary centered on nostalgia. A Beijing News review described the series as a mainland-assembled web drama with a strong Hong Kong flavor, noting that Jordan Chan had moved from his 1990s "Chicken" image to fatherhood and that the show used nostalgia to salute the present; it judged Chan's performance stronger than in contemporaneous triad films and read the drama as having an Infernal Affairs-like core, with everything in the open yet cold and dark.¹⁴ The Jiemian interview observed that twenty years had passed since the golden age of Hong Kong police films and that viewers with an attachment to 1990s Hong Kong cinema would be struck by the lineup of familiar actors.⁷

Criticism focused on length and pacing. One reviewer who watched the series on Netflix found the opening reminiscent of old-school Hong Kong police shows and praised the veterans' acting, but judged 30 episodes too many, arguing the show could have been cut to about 20 if it had developed its existing characters rather than adding more.¹³ Viewer discussion in 2017 similarly praised the script's simple, logical plotting while noting weaker acting among the younger cast members.⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Korean and East Asian web series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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