 Not One Less was Zhang Yimou 's ninth film , but only the second not to star long @-@ time collaborator Gong Li ( the first was his 1997 Keep Cool ) . For this film , he cast only amateur actors whose real @-@ life names and occupations resembled those of characters they played in the film — as The Philadelphia Inquirer 's Steven Rea described the performances , the actors are just " people playing variations of themselves in front of the camera " . For instance , Tian Zhenda , who played the mayor , was the real @-@ life mayor of a small village , and the primary actors Wei Minzhi and Zhang Huike were selected from among thousands of students in rural schools . ( The names and occupations of the film 's main actors are listed in the table below . ) The movie was filmed on location at Chicheng County 's Shuiquan Primary School , and in the city of Zhangjiakou ; both locations are in Hebei province . 
