By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Jeff Chung imagines that telephones all across O'ahu go unanswered between 7:50 and 11 p.m.

KBFD, Hawai'i's Korean-language television station, has been airing Korean dramas with English subtitles since 1988. But in the last three years, as the production quality has gone up, the popularity of the soap-opera type shows has taken off. In the last several months, Hawai'i viewers have reached a kind of frenzy.

"People are calling us all the time asking us how many episodes are left because they're going on vacation ... or they say they missed a show last night and they want a copy of it," Chung says.

He marvels at the thousands of soundtracks his company has sold to fans who don't speak Korean. They fall in love with the songs on the shows and sing along to words they don't understand. One woman requested that the theme to her favorite Korean drama be played at her funeral.

"There's even a local fan club of Korean dramas," Chung says. "They'll meet together and have birthday parties for a specific celebrity in Korea that they like. It's kind of a cult following."

The twist here is that Korean dramas are very different from American soap operas. For one thing, the story lines actually have endings rather than go on ad nauseam. And the big difference: Korean dramas are family-friendly.

"They express love so clean and pure. Their love scenes are so wholesome," says fan Janet Oi.

"I think people really enjoy it because it doesn't deal with much sex, not much violence at all, and hardly any mention of drugs," says Chung.

KBFD (Channel 4 on Oceanic and Channel 32 on free broadcast), Hawai'i's only locally owned and operated television station, does all the English subtitling of the dramas for U.S. distribution. It's labor-intensive, taking several months per series. But English-speaking fans of the dramas want more, more, more.

"Let me tell you, once I started I couldn't stop," says Oi, who claims she watched a friend's tape of 24 episodes of one drama over two days, "not wanting to stop to cook dinner or anything else."

The Web site KBFD.com has a bustling message board where Hawai'i fans can rant, opine and wax poetic over their favorite stories:

"It was sooooo sad as the new wife found out about her husband and his first wife and daughter! What a situation to be in ... knowing that you love and are married to a man with no recollection of his past. It's either send him back to his former life, or stay with him since he's the father of your young son . ... What will happen next ...?"

Chung's not too sure. He's still marveling over what's happening right now. "We don't do much marketing outside our own channel, so it's been all word of mouth. And it's like wildfire. It's incredible."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.