The Chusok holidays are when family-oriented films tend to dominate local theaters, and this year looks to be no different. Putting in its bid for the Chusok crown is ``Kkotpinun Pomi Omyon (Springtime),'' a sentimental melodrama about music and love.

In a return to the screen after his brilliant performance in last year's ``Old Boy,'' Choi Min-sik plays a character that requires much more serenity and softness than his usual angst-ridden roles. Hyon-woo is a classically trained trumpet player whose talents haven't taken him where he wanted to go in life. Unable to find a job with an orchestra, he ends up teaching part-time at an academy. His personal life isn't any better, as he constantly argues with his mother and his ex-girlfriend, whom he still has feelings for but can't commit to.

Dissatisfaction with his surroundings eventually leads Hyon-woo out of Seoul to a small town, where he takes a job as the band teacher at a local middle school. The job is a modest one, with the music program in danger of folding if it doesn't do well in the upcoming national competition.

But despite the numerous obstacles, Hyon-woo seems to take to his new job and also the slower-paced life. Indeed, the trumpet player seems almost like a new man, someone who has found a purpose, and he gradually connects to the townspeople, especially the pretty pharmacist Soo-yon (Jang Sin-young), and Jae-il (Lee Jae-eung), a student in the band with a difficult home life.

Though ``Springtime - Flower Spring'' definitely aims for being a sentimental feel-good movie, there's a quietness to the film that keeps it from becoming too syrupy. First-time director Ryu Jang-ha previously worked as writer and lighting director on such quiet melodramas as ``Pomnalun Kanda (One Fine Spring Day)'' and ``Palwolui Christmas (Christmas in August),'' and he brings that same melancholy restraint to this film.

But this same restraint keeps ``Springtime'' from ever finding a direction. The film gives nearly equal weight to all the different narrative elements in Hyon-woo's life _ his transformation into a better person, his changing relationship with the townspeople, and the growth of the school band _ resulting in a pleasant enough.