Only a video cut (containing a frame) designated by a user is automatically and correctly extracted directly from a video image under playing operation at high speed. A judgement is made as to whether or not the frame of the video image is designated by the user. When such a user designation is made, a detection is made of a change point in the video cut containing this designated frame (reverse playing direction, forward playing direction). Under such a condition that a frame image immediately before this change point is displayed, the playing operation of the video image is brought into a pause state. Accordingly, only the video cut desired by the user can be extracted during a single playing operation of the video image, and the video image can be edited in a high efficiency.