The present invention is directed to a motion-picture time scale control instruction system for time-controlled playback of motion picture in accordance with a time-scale control signal. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, during playback of motion-picture data, the CPU of the system outputs to a time-scale control section a time-scale control signal corresponding to a tempo of a piece of music output from a tempo detection mechanism. The time-scale control section adjusts the playback speed of motion-picture data in accordance with the time-scale control signal. The motion-picture playback section reads the motion-picture data from a dedicated RAM while increasing or decreasing the read-out time for each unit of data in accordance with the adjusted playback speed, and outputs the read motion-picture data to the display. On the basis of the timing set information, the system can read the motion-picture data in synchronism with the specific music performance timing, and output the read motion-picture data to the display in synchronism with the played music.