You know you're onto something when your product is on the top-10 lists for mothers during Christmas and Mother's Day. What is it? Korean drama DVDs!

KBFD was the first company to subtitle Korean dramas back in 1989. Then U.S. Mainland Korean broadcasters bought the station's translations and subtitles. Several years ago, we supplied our translation to Korean network KBS for the DVD of "Winter Ballad," aka "Winter Sonata," the drama that sent Bae Yong Joon's career over the Tokyo tower.

But in the pre-DVD 1990s, we learned that people were recording our subtitled Korean dramas onto videocassettes. At that time, recording TV shows for personal use and to share with family was common, since the Neighbor Islands did not yet get KBFD on Oceanic Cable. But one thing led to another, and people who had missed the ending or the beginning of a series sought out anyone who had a copy of the episode. Demand for home-taped K-drama videos was so great that someone started selling them — which is illegal. K-drama content belongs to South Korean networks, and KBFD owns the subtitle rights.

With the advent of DVDs has come the death of most VHS pirating. However, people are now bootlegging DVDs.

Be warned: You don't get your money's worth when you buy illegal K-drama DVDs. You could end up with one or more of the following: poor translations, missing episodes and the wrong region code. DVDs are coded for specific regions, and a DVD coded for Asia will not play on DVD players in the U.S.

I had a conversation with a fan who purchased an illegal copy of "Beautiful Days," found it was missing episodes and wound up buying a legal complete copy anyway.

And, of course, buying illegal copies of Korean dramas takes business away from KBFD and South Korean networks that work hard to bring you the best programming.

Other companies also translate dramas for South Korean networks, but with more than 16 years of experience, KBFD still wins the majority of the work. Many of the new translators are too literal and, with cultural differences, the meaning often is not accurately expressed.

We, with The Honolulu Advertiser, will be giving away DVD sets next month and in March as part of KBFD's 20th-anniversary celebration, so stay tuned to this column!

NEW SERIES IS BUILT AROUND KOREAN REALITY TV SHOW

'A FAREWELL TO TEARS'

EPISODES 35 AND 36

Tonight at 7: Tae-bok collapses from shock and is taken to a hospital. Seo-young and Yeon-shim find out Tae-bok was involved in a scam. Sung-min tells Yeo-jin that Hae-sun's son is dead. Jung-woo's second attempt on the home shopping network fails because of Il-ho's interruption.

Tonight at 8: Tae-bok invites Jung-woo to the last dinner with his family. Jung-woo starts a food cart to promote his noodles. Seo-young finds out Min-joo is pregnant, and tells Do-jin to marry her. Seo-young and her family are chased into the streets by creditors.

'TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE'

EPISODES 1 AND 2

This new series centers on a Korean reality TV show. Ko Soo plays Young-hoon, a lovable, slightly below-average guy who's cast to play a phony millionaire in the reality show "To Marry a Millionaire." Kim Hyun-joo plays his first love, who's brought on the show because she was his first love. But the real drama starts when the reality show ends and "reality" begins.

Starring : Ko Soo, Kim Hyun-joo, Yoon Sang-hyun, Son Tae-young

Airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 7:50 p.m., re-airs Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 3 p.m.

Tomorrow at 7:50 p.m.: The final episode of "To Marry a Millionaire" is under way in a beautiful chateau in France, and Young-hoon is about to make his final decision. Three months earlier, Eun-young is a hardworking twentysomething who supports her stepmother and stepsister. Young-hoon is a kind but dim-witted second son of a family of geniuses. Young-hoon and Eun-young, who were former classmates, run into each other at a party.

Tuesday at 7:50 p.m.: Young-hoon rescues Eun-young from a toxic gas-filled room, and the two are taken to an emergency room. At the hospital, Young-hoon overhears Eun-young telling her stepmother that she hasn't liked him ever since she found out he wasn't smart. Producer Jin-ha casts Young-hoon as the main character of his new show, "To Marry a Millionaire."

'STAINED GLASS'

EPISODES 9 AND 10

Wednesday at 7:50 p.m.: After Tae-sung dies in an accident, Chairman Park tells Ki-tae and his mother to move into his house. Ki-tae is now an heir to the Dae Young Group. Dong-joo goes to find Ji-soo and brings her back to Seoul. She moves in with Joo-kyung after moving out of Ki-tae's house and quitting her job. Dong-joo invites both Ki-tae and Ji-soo for lunch on his birthday.

Thursday at 7:50 p.m.: Tension increases between Ki-tae and Dong-joo as they compete for Ji-soo's attention. Ji-soo likes Dong-joo but Ki-tae can't accept that. Ki-tae purposely gets Tae-hee, Dong-joo and Ji-soo all together for dinner to show Ji-soo that Dong-joo and Tae-hee met on a blind date. Yoon-suh has suspicions about Tae-sung's death and tells Chairman Park that she'll get to the truth about Tae-sung's death.

'SWEET SPY'

EPISODES 3 AND 4

Friday at 7:50 p.m.: Joon chases after Soon-ae, but she gets away on a boat with Yoo-il. Yoo-il leaves Soon-ae after arriving at the dock. Yoo-il and his assistant conclude that Soon-ae may be a spy for another organization. Yoo-il's assistant hires someone to tail Soon-ae but mistakenly gives the package containing the money and the instructions to Choe Bum-koo, the recently released boss of a small- time gang.

Saturday at 7:50 p.m.: Yoo-il and Soon-ae attend a party thrown by Song Hyun-chul to announce the launch of a new investment fund. Joon and his division are deployed to provide security at the party. Bum-koo and his flunkies go there as well, to keep a watch on Soon-ae. Amid all this chaos, Soon-ae is kidnapped by the Japanese crime syndicate Black Dragons and asked about the whereabouts of the pen.