The drama ``Fuyu no Sonata'' (Winter Sonata), starring Korean heartthrob Bae Yong Joon, has been a megahit in Japan. Especially captivated were middle-aged women with money to burn and time to spend. To enjoy the full ``Fuyu-sona'' experience, many of these conservative women ventured into the virgin territory of DVDs and rental videos-all for Yon-sama. And how did they fare?

A marketing official at VAP Inc., the distributor of the ``Winter Sonata'' DVD, said the firm was stumped when strange inquiries began streaming in last August, right after the DVD's release.

``Um, what's a DVD?''

Some inquirers were not even sure how to pronounce the term.

When a VAP staff person explained, ``You need a player to watch it,'' an innocent reply followed, ``Oh, then I'll take that, too.''

One woman complained, ``I pushed [the DVD] into my son's CD player, but nothing happened.''

During the peak, the company was fielding more than 100 inquiries a day. The naivete was touching but hardly funny when the phone got tied up for half an hour, so VAP put together a Q-and-A handbook.

A DVD of a television drama that sells 10,000 units is considered a hit. Sales of ``Fuyu-sona'' ran up to 360,000.

According to Culture Convenience Club Co., which manages the video-rental chain Tsutaya, 10,000 new memberships were issued last June alone-most of them supposedly new customers signing up to rent ``Fuyu-sona.'' The video has been checked out more than 5 million times since Tsutaya began renting it in August 2003. In September, the company posted 3.2 billion yen in pretax profits-a new six-month record.

One company official muses: ``We tried everything to lure the [middle-aged female] group. Nothing happened. This was revolutionary.''

Fans may be saying the same thing. For many, 2004 was the year that ``revolutionalized'' everyday life. A 57-year-old homemaker in Kanagawa Prefecture bought a DVD player, a CD player, a PC printer and a scanner-all for ``Fuyu-sona.'' She says: ``I can't tape a television program, but I had to watch the DVD. My husband coached me.''

According to Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc., ``Fuyu-sona'' produced a ripple effect in Japan equal to a whopping 122.5 billion yen.

At one Tokyo outlet of electronics retailer Bic Camera, the most-common question from middle-aged women-suspected ``Fuyu-sona'' enthusiasts-is ``Which machine is easiest to work?''

Clerks do their best to explain the mechanics, but they say it's uphill work and takes time.

Setsuo Sakamoto, executive director of Hakuhodo Elder Business Development Division, a unit of advertising powerhouse Hakuhodo, says: ``Audiovisual manufacturers love to add intricate features. They don't care about easy handling. If there had been a senior-friendly DVD player, the ripple effect might have been greater.''

With all the analysis of the ``Fuyu-sona'' wave comes a big question: ``What's next?''

The homemaker with all the audiovisual hardware says: ``I used the DVD player to watch `Fuyu-sona.' That was it. I have no idea when I will use it next.''

Let's hope something else will come along to continue the lifestyle revolution of older viewers.(IHT/Asahi: January 15,2005)