This is an old thread I found that might work another_lousy_php_mysql_charset_issue
They have a change that can be made to MySQL and one that can be made to PHP. I would try the PHP fix first, try setting the default_charset to utf8 and see if that fixes it. You can set that in the php.ini or by using ini_set('default_charset', 'utf8'); on the page itself (i'd put it in the global file since its on every page).