A video decoding apparatus which decodes a bitstream on an area-by-area basis. The area is included in a picture of an interlace format. The bitstream is coded by switching coding types between field coding and frame coding. The apparatus includes: a filter processing unit which performs post filtering for removing noise; a coding type identifying unit which identifies the coding type of a current area and further identifies the coding type of either the area contained in a picture temporally continuous to the current picture and colocated with the current area or the area spatially adjacent to the current area; and a noise removing strength determination unit which determines strength for removing noise according to whether the identified coding type is the frame coding or the field coding. The processing unit performs post filtering on the current area according to the noise removing strength.