20 TRUE FACTS ABOUT NINJAS AND ZOMBIES

To celebrate the release of NINJA APOCALYPSE on Monday 15th September 2014, we bring you 20 true facts about ninjas and zombies!

Ninjas!

1. Ninja’ is the commonly used phrase referring to the shinobi who practised Ninjutsu.
2. Jinichi Kawakami claims to be the last authentic Ninja. He is the 21st head of the Koga Ban clan and is 64 years old.
3. There are 18 disciples it Ninjutsu, including Kayakujutsu (pyrotechnics) and Chi-on (geography).
4. Archaic Ninjustu adopted the sacred practice of kuji-kiri to create charms and incantations. It was thought to have incredible effects including magical powers.
5. Ninjas were taught to tell the time through the art of nekome-justu – identifying the difference in light in a cat’s eye.
6. Ninjustu translates as the art of stealth. In order to remain stealthy Ninjas had to be light and small in build – most weighing less than 9 stone.
7. The Shuriken (also known as a Ninja star) was used as a means of distraction rather than a weapon
8. The Ninja diet involved avoiding all food that led to body odour including garlic, dairy and meat.
9. Apart from weapons, there were many other elements of survival hidden in the depths of the ninja robe. A box of crickets was often carried to detract from any small sound the ninja would make.
10. Ashiaro (wooden soles on the feet) were used to imitate different footprints so Ninjas were harder to track.
11. Ninjas rarely wear black, instead they strove to camouflage themselves where possible – at night wearing navy blue.

    

    Zombies!

12. The US Department of Health have a Zombie survival plan in place.
13. In 2006 zombie chickens caused a stir in California after numerous accounts of chickens reanimating. It turned out they were not euthanised effectively.
14. A spore of a certain fungus (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) essentially turns ants into zombies. After entering the exoskeleton the filaments grow into the ant’s brain causing them to become transportation for the fungus. When the fungus has exhausted it’s use of the ant it causes it to bite down on a poisonous leaf – thus killing it.
15. The origin of the word ‘zombie’ derives from the African word nzambi, which means ‘god’ and ‘zumbi’ which means fetish.
16. World Zombie Day is on October 11th
17. In Haiti it is a crime to turn someone into a Zombie. Article 249 states that if someone drugs another person, buries him as though he were dead, and then digs the person up and brings him back to life, it is still considered murder.
18. One of the first documented zombie stories was a Middle Eastern tale, Epic of Gigamesh, which was written over 5,000 years ago. An angry goddess threatens to bring the dead back to eat the living.
19. The safest country during a zombie outbreak in relation to location, defence, and population is Australia.
20. As the creator of many of the early zombie film classics, George A. Romero is often referred to as the ‘Father of the Modern Zombie.’

Signature Entertainment releases NINJA APOCALYPSE on DVD and Download to Own and Rent on the 15th September 2014

Framed for assassinating Grandmaster Fumitaka (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, 47 Ronin, Tekken, Mortal Kombat), Cage (Christian Oliver, The Three Musketeers, Valkyrie, Speed Racer), his brother Surge (Les Brandt, Smoke, The Resolve, Days Of Our Lives) and the rest of the Lost Ninja Clan must battle their way through an underground nuclear bunker filled with hordes of supernatural enemies, mutants, and flesh eating zombies, pursued by Hiroshi’s (Ernie Reyes Jr., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, The Rundown, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal) unstoppable Ninja army with orders to hunt them down. Trapped a thousand feet below the earth’s crust, the Lost Clan will face hell.

DEVASTATION. MUTATION. TERMINATION