use this code with mb_convert_encoding, you can json_encode some corrupt UTF-8 chars
    function safe_json_encode($value, $options = 0, $depth = 512) {
        $encoded = json_encode($value, $options, $depth);
        if ($encoded === false && $value && json_last_error() == JSON_ERROR_UTF8) {
            $encoded = json_encode(utf8ize($value), $options, $depth);
        }
        return $encoded;
    }
    function utf8ize($mixed) {
        if (is_array($mixed)) {
            foreach ($mixed as $key => $value) {
                $mixed[$key] = utf8ize($value);
            }
        } elseif (is_string($mixed)) {
            return mb_convert_encoding($mixed, "UTF-8", "UTF-8");
        }
        return $mixed;
    }