How to encode THIS in json?

Question

PHP

Array:

Array
(
    [options] => Array
        (
            [0] => <option [email protected]красный>@красный</option>
            [1] => <option [email protected]�������>@�������</option>
            [2] => <option value=��_��>��_��</option>
        )
)

I want:
json_encode($array);
Error:

Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded

If you do serialize($array), there are no errors, but how to parse this string in JS into an object then?

a:1:{s:7:"options";a:3:{i:0;s:54:"<option [email protected]красный>@красный</option>";i:1;s:40:"<option [email protected]�������>@�������</option>";i:2;s:34:"<option value=��_��>��_��</option>";}}

Answer 1

These simple strings should simply be written in plain utf-8 encoding.
Anticipating possible objections. No, not "I've been picking my nose here, and I believe that these are just strings already in utf-8 encoding", but actually be in utf-8 encoding.
Anticipating possible offers. Re-encoding - it will be gibberish. It is necessary to immediately receive in the desired encoding, from where these lines come from. Since the author suddenly decided to play the young partisan, he will look for the actual solution on his own.
After the author managed to beat out the testimony, it became possible to restore the picture of the incident.
R¤Rћ_RўRћ is UTF recoded to 1251.
Accordingly, back

echo mb_convert_encoding('ФО_ТО', "cp1251", "utf-8");

Answer 2

Cast all lowercase elements to utf8, or use the option: JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE