Hans Castorp, the German man at the hotel, has the same name as the main character from The Magic Mountain. In this book, Hans is revealed to have Tuberculosis, similar to a character in the film.
The song sung by Jiro , Castorp and others at dinner is "Das gibt's nur einmal, das kommt nicht wieder" " ("This happens only once, it doesn't come again") from the German musical comedy film Der Kongreß tanzt (Congress Dances (1932) ).
As Jiro enters Giovanni's plane by ladder, the ladder is not brought back inside when they close the hatch. But the next shot, the ladder is inside the plane on its side.
After the heavy rainstorm, Jiro folds the umbrella that he and Nahoko walked under, but the umbrella shows no sign of being wet once the sun shines and Nahoko's father appears.
As Nahoko's train from the sanatorium pulls into the station, a conductor with a light salutes the train driver as it pulls in next to him on track 2. In the next shot, the train is just pulling in next to the conductor on track 2 and the conductor salutes the driver again.