An image processing apparatus includes: a field forming unit configured to subject 3-2 pulldown materials to 3-2 pulldown to form field images in normal reproduction, and to add flag information to the field images, the flag information necessary to generate frame images from field images; and a generating unit configured to generate frame images from the formed field images based on the flag information, wherein in a special reproduction other than the normal reproduction, according to its reproduction form, the field forming unit forms a predetermined field image from the material, and adds flag information to the formed field images, the flag information that has to be added to a field image possibly formed by subjecting the material corresponding to the field image to 3-2 pulldown, and the generating unit generates a frame image from the field image based on the flag information added to the field image.